Her Daughter's Secret
by Nighthawk Imac
Summary: In the lead up to christmas, a series of events will forever change the Mizuno family.
1. Story Disclaimer and Foreword

**Story Disclaimer**

I do not have or ever have retained ownerships of the rights to Sailor Moon and its subsequent characters belonging to the show. All subsequent original characters created for this fiction belong to me, if they or the plot infer resemblance to other works, it is purely coincidental. This work may not be re-distributed for sale under fan-fiction ethic guidelines. This work may be translated per the requirement of informing the author. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

**Foreword**

Hello Readers.

For the past 14 months, I have been working on this project to create this story, one for which I hope you will enjoy as much as I have put by best concerted efforts into planning, drafting, and eventually uploading to this website. It is, I'm glad to say the first story I have completed fully and I look forward to your comments.

_Nighthawk_Imac _


	2. Chapter 1: Table Discussion

**Chapter 1 - Table discussion**

The question had come at something of a surprise. The five of them had met up today to go over their notes together in a last minute preparation for the exams in the following week, which if all went according to plan, they would pass without hassle and let them go on their winter holidays without a problem. Five hours of solid study had preceded before one of them - returning from a toilet break - had thought of the question, prompting to ask this very question.

"What are your plans for Christmas?"

Its desired effect was an unwelcome one. But it still resulted in this regular temple study session diverging into an equally regular discussion on their respective plans for Christmas. It was a very simple question in reality, one that nobody really thinks much about it. Between friends and family, the question could be - depending on familiarity - be honestly or dishonestly answered with varying degrees of humor added, all the while communicating in reply to the simple question concern for those who didn't quite have the same joyous plans that the asker might have. In this, none of the girls was afraid to explain their plans; Rei was going to be busy with the shrine a busy place for lovers to come for trinkets to buy on Christmas day and alike, but still have time later on to have Christmas cake with her grandfather and Yuichiro.

Makoto, having no family of her own; was going to stay at Usagi's place to stand in for Mamoru since he was for some miracle of timing currently in London and unable to return for Christmas. Finally Minako was expecting visitors to come over and spend a traditional Christmas day with some of her extended family who made the trip this year- talking at length looking forward to seeing her cousins since she hadn't seen them in such a long time, even if they were only small children last time they met. All of them had exciting plans that seemed to top the previous plan as each one told the others; except for one member.

"So what are you doing this year?"

"The same as usual I guess" Ami replied quite shyly

"What do you mean by that?" Usagi asked, quite curious at what to her was a cryptic answer.

"Well, I'm not quite sure of mother's schedule this year, so it's probably just going to be just me again"

This statement not only surprised everyone. All the girls knew that Ami and her mother were rarely home together, but it hadn't really occurred to them in the past that this arrangement might even extend to this time of the year.

"But doesn't your mother work in the Clinical side of the hospital now?" Rei asked, she had a better recollection on Ami's mother, and to some degree the practice and function of hospitals.

"Yes, but she still does shifts in the Emergency Room…and especially at this time of the year when the demand is a lot higher" Ami replied honestly "they are often short handed in experienced doctors and they call her and others with experience in to watch over the ER"

"Does this happen every year?" Makoto asked, fielding the same question Minako was about to ask.

"Well, she worked last year…and the year before…" Ami trailed off when she saw that everyone was quickly getting the wrong idea, quickly covering she went on "…but she and I did spend Christmas together the year before that…so it works out okay, it just depends on the schedule"

Ami sighed, as she hoped that her reply would bury the tension she briefly felt talking about this with her friends. This subject did worry her sometimes since they didn't really understand how accustomed she was to the situation, but from their looks, Usagi especially, they didn't seem to understand. Now that the gauntlet had been dropped, there was no returning to quiet study, as predicted, all of them jumped on the subject.

"So what about this year?" Rei asked

"Well, I haven't asked mom since she has been quite busy, but…" Ami continued "but as I said, I think she is going to be working this year as well"

The last thing Ami wanted to do was have them worry about her, but that hope had all but died when she told them the truth. To the other four; the atmosphere in the room felt like it had become freezing tundra compared to the relative warmth of a few seconds ago. The heated table, the cozy atmosphere of Rei's room, and the general sprit in the air that accompanies both their study sessions and this certain time of the year, all but vanished as each girl felt a painful ice cold pane of guilt go down each of their spines. Having just discussed their own plans for this year, as is often the case in the human psyche, they now felt an unfathomable shame.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Makoto asked, breaking the momentary silence.

"It's something I'm use to, so I didn't think I'd tell you" Ami answered.

"That's not the same as enjoying it" Rei replied sternly, now chipping in her own opinion.

"I don't enjoy it…but at the same time, I understand the reason"

"Reason?" Usagi asked, only because she didn't get it and wasn't afraid to admit it. However, for once had asked a question everyone else wanted to hear the answer to.

"Well…" Ami started "the hospital is usually very short staffed around this time of the year and most of the senior members of the staff have their holidays then…so it's usually up to mom and the others to take over the wards during this time of the year…I know it sounds silly, but I'm alright with it…because I know she cannot leave the hospital. Her patients depend on her...they certainly don't want to be there, and her fellow residents depend on her too for support and to help make tough decisions...and they certainly don't want to be there either…and if I want to become a doctor one day, I have to be ready to do the same things, because even on days I don't want to…I have a responsibility to my patients to be there"

Her answer sounded to the others, at most, like an excuse a five year old would be making, but the part at the end brought it home that she wasn't making up excuses, rather accepting a fact of life that took growing up with the same eventual goal. It wasn't selfishness on the part of the mother, or denial on the part of the daughter. The girls kept silent, wanting to say something, but conceding the moment wasn't right for objecting. The moment passed and the absence defeated objection turned into guilt again as didn't feel worthy to be in the same room as Ami as her sermon concluded. Their thoughts about what was fair on Christmas fell away as they understood much better the relation between their friend, and their mother who - despite her usual absence - was still an inspiration to her daughter.

"Ami…" Usagi was the first to speak after a minute of silence, "don't you get lonely?"

"It's not so lonely…I can watch television, sometimes I just like to read" Ami replied, forcing a cheerful face, again she felt like she was depressing her friends with her very word.

The topic was quite a sensitive one already and every time she brought up her family situation, Ami felt guilty for reactions she got from everyone else. It was bad enough that she was the daughter of a divorced couple, something society in this country frowned upon, but to have them fret over her mother's work situation at this time of year, it was almost too much. Ami didn't feel especially proud to admit her circumstances - knowing well how much all of them cared about her - and had decided to keep this little piece of information quiet until she was asked, which in hindsight seemed to make no difference in dulling the reactions she was expected to get.

"I won't allow it!"

All the girls looked to the source of the announcement. Typically, it came from the one of them who had the most heartfelt - if not quite always well placed - concern for situations like this, Minako Aino.

"We are not letting you spend Christmas alone this year!" she repeated "Nobody should be alone this time of the year!"

"Minako…" Ami sighed, seeing that her friend was serious. Minako was as loyal a friend as they came, but even Ami sometimes had to worry about what she was thinking, since not every plan Minako came up with applied to the rules of common sense.

"You're not going to convince my mother are you?"

"Maybe?" Minako answered without a trace of wit in her voice.

"She'll say no..." Ami answered straight away "...and I'm not even sure she has Christmas off yet, so let me find out that first before..."

"Then what about if she doesn't?" Makoto joined into the argument.

"Then I'll…"

"…stay here"

All of them turned to Rei, who upon prompting continued to explain her idea

"You can stay here…we could always do with the help around this time of the year"

"You're not thinking of putting a guest to work are you?" Usagi challenged Rei's idea, already seeing an imaginary ulterior motive.

It didn't take much for the two of them to start fighting over something and now that Rei had spoken on this seemingly trivial subject, any hope of returning to study was doomed.

"No I wouldn't!" Rei quickly objected "But as I said...if she should like to do something more than read alone, then I would love her to come over!"

Usagi at once quickly worked to come up with a strong rebuttal, knowing if she didn't, Rei would be both victorious in this argument and maybe steal Ami away to. Already in Usagi's exaggerated imagination, she feared that Ami would slave away keeping the heated tub hot while Rei enjoyed a steamy bath. When she had failed to find fault in the argument Rei had made, Usagi went to the next best thing and offered an alterative solution.

"How about you come over to my place?

"Eh?" all of them replied.

"Yeah...Makoto is coming already! I can always get my parents to let you come over as well" Usagi repeated, already lit up to the idea. Once a sparked rebuttal to Rei's plan, the blonde-haired teenager was already imagining a girls night on Christmas eve, though like always, Usagi's imagination could be charitably described as heavily romanticized compared to reality.

"We'll have sweets, cookies, ice cream…"

"Do you want to invite her over for Christmas or fatten her up?" Rei rebutted, at once shooting down the dream idea that Usagi came up with.

"Are you calling me fat again?" Usagi turned around and winced.

"No, but now that you bring it up…" Rei teased, seeing the opening and knowing very well how to exploit it.

And from their, Rei and Usagi's argument changed from competition over who could host Ami for Christmas, to the intricacies of dieting for high school girls, an argument that could last half a day or more with these two fighting, though rarely did either take it to heart. While this was going on, Minako returned to the original topic, now throwing her ideas into the realm of suggestion. Being the person who started this argument, she felt somewhat responsible for making Ami feel left out, even if her previous plan had been shut down, she could still join in the argument and offer to help out.

"You could always stay over at my place" Minako quipped "I mean it might be a tight squeeze, but more is the happier right?"

Ami sighed, first at her friend once again getting the proverb wrong, and second at the suggestion, being she was simply jumping on the idea bandwagon that Usagi and Rei had started, both of whom reacted.

"Squeeze in?" Usagi suddenly focused her attention on Minako's idea "are you going to fit her in a closet or something? How are you going to with so many people visiting your place?"

"No, but it's a lot more merrier than your place"

And now the argument changed once again as Minako and Usagi now argued who had a better house. It was an argument that nobody could win since neither of them had the space for Ami and neither could guarantee they could let her stay over. All it did was make the general volume of the discussion raise a notch and sank Ami in further despair. She was now feeling guilty at how her friends were going out of their way to find a solution for her. None had a solution of course and all that was being accomplished was time being wasted. Finally after all three potential hosts had argued for several minutes, Makoto finally input her opinion.

"You know, if we're worried about Ami staying alone" Makoto started "I could always stay over at Ami's place instead… I'm only going over to Usagi's place because I don't have family to visit this year, so I can easily make the swap"

Usagi turned head at hearing the that suggestion.

"But Makoto…" Usagi whined, the idea brought a new kind of despair to her "you promised… I spent all of a month getting my parents okay with you coming over"

"Is that all you could think of?" Rei murmured quietly

"Hey, it took me a lot of effort!" Usagi asked

"But didn't they say yes straight away?" Rei replied, at once deflating the courage that Usagi had bolstered to talk them into the idea. Once again in rebuttal, Usagi's idea spoke volumes of the amount of planning that was neglected from her idea.

"Well if you're going over, then I'm going over too!"

"And so will I!" Minako replied

And just like that, the argumentative plan shifted from one of them hosting Ami, to Ami hosting all of them. It was a plan with just as many flaws as before, but still a heated debate continued on despite reality pressing down the idea. Ideas were exchanged and with minor alternations, Usagi's previous idea about a girls' night on Christmas was somehow re-floated. But even with the addition of Minako — who insisted on going — it was still and idea that carried the same lack of realism as her previous plan.

"If you three go, then I'll have to go…"

"Don't you have to look after the shrine?"

"I'll get Yuichiro to pull double shifts!" Rei answered before jabbing at specifically Usagi "...and if I leave you three alone, you might end up destroying her apartment"

"We will not!" Usagi replied angrily.

Now that the unrealistic arrangement included all four of them, Ami was left to sigh and wait for them to expel their own arguments on each other. She just smiled and waited, knowing that eventually one of them would come to their senses and ask her the question on what she wanted to do. It took time to exhaust the argument to its logical conclusion, but it was Rei who eventually asked, and Ami — after having all of several minutes to frame it — replied in turn.

"Well, I know you really want to…and I really appreciate it…but is it really a good idea burden others because of me?"

"Huh?" they all replied, wondering how Ami could still argue against any of their ideas

"But Ami, we can…" Usagi started before she was cut off.

"No..." Ami started to explain "All of you have plans already, I've just heard them"

Ami first looked at Rei and then made her way around the table counter-clockwise explaining her reasons.

"Rei, you have to watch the shrine and prepare for the New Year, and if I stayed here, you'd have to take time out to teach me everything to be useful…I can't burden you for time at this busy part of the year"

"Then I guess you can…" Usagi again started, not yet getting it.

"…Usagi, your family is important too, you can't burden them more by not being there or inviting more guests, you have extended family visiting too don't you…Minako, just the same, you have extended family visiting, you can see me any day of the year, you haven't seen them at all for a year…"

'Not that I actually want to see...some...of them' Minako silently thought.

Ami finally turned to the final girl in the group "Makoto…I don't want you to change your plans on my account…Usagi invited you because your extended family aren't around this year, and from what I've heard, has already gone to the effort. My family is here and even if they aren't home the whole day, I will still see them"

With one slow turn of the head, she had silenced all of the opposing ideas and calmed everyone down, but Ami's second sermon of the day had brought the room to a deathly silence. Despite being told otherwise, all of them wanted to do something anyway, though upon hearing her logical objections, they now silently looked for a way to be there for Ami. Each of them gave it several minutes before they had exhausted their ideas to the logical flaw that Ami had reproached them for. Like it or not, it was unfair to everyone else's prior commitments for Ami to invite herself or have everyone stay with her.

"Are you sure?" Rei asked again

"Yes"

"Then I hope your mother can spend Christmas with you this year" said Minako finally said, getting the final line in on this debate.

With that, all of them paused talking for a moment, that passed and Ami's motion for them to continue studying was indication enough to move on. In a few minutes, the sound of scribbling pens on paper and pages being turned replaced the absence of noise from before. While all had come to unspoken agreement to stop talking about Ami's disposition, they continued to silently think about their friend. Among the four, it was Usagi who was still adamant to change things. She alone still believed she could try convincing her parents, but the firm objections that Makoto and Ami had both put on her to prevent doing that. While the others silently festered thoughts about their friend's plans, Ami had other thoughts of her own to consider.

Unbeknownst to them, Ami was concerned about the present arrangement, but not entirely for the reasons that she had explained. Originally she had plans, but for a head cold suffered by Ami's material grandmother, those plans had stalled as questions had been raised on if she could come to visit Ami and her mother in Tokyo. Several days ago, after consulting with other members of the family, Ami's grandmother announced her reluctant decision to stay at home. The news had been a blow for Ami and upon being reminded of the present circumstances surrounding her Christmas plans, she had turned her thoughts to wonder about if her mother would have Christmas off, despite no evidence thus far to indicate such.

It was something to hope for, but it was unlikely and as much as Ami could pray, her own sermon stood as a wall barricading her own wishes from reality. With that conclusion made, Ami made a note to investigate the question when she got home. For now, even under these circumstances, this wasn't the time to ask herself questions. Ami already she questions to answer on the page in front of her, and surely questions from her friends which would soon follow. For now, Ami needed to only concern herself on the questions she knew how to answer.

* * *

Once upon a generation ago, the inn would've been a source of pride and distinction, the kind that other inns like this still had, but this inn and the hostess who ran it hadn't been as fortunate. The recession that still gripped the nation had forced this inn in the remote north to close three quarters of a decade ago and was left to fall apart. The grounds were messy, the drained hot springs were long covered in moss and the gardens were overgrown. One casual glance of the building aside the mountain would make one think it was beyond use, but its appearance belied the casual observer. The sturdy design of the structure had survived the test of time and as a result the building had recently become inhabited again.

As far as base camps went, it was a depressing state of affairs; they could house everyone without exposing themselves to outsides, but their ability to do much else was mitigated by a lack of magical source to produce anything useful. None the less, despite this most unfavorable factor in establishing the base camp, its discrete location made it the primary choice for the commander. It was undetectable by their enemies, the common people — who never even came closer than a few miles — and even the authority they once reported to. Even with the latter most element disposed from existence, it was an important element to the plan, it was too far away from anyone to be easily found.

Sitting in what would've been a banquet hall many years ago, seven persons sat around the low table, their attention all loyally focused to their commander, who only a month ago was thought to be gone from this earth. He was a general, one who had been one of their most notable leaders and had also defied the authority which no longer presided over them. The 'general' as everyone referred to him, was a bitter veteran of war, and had only days before been recalled from the icy fortress of exile, which had been his punishment for attempting to slay the woman who herself led the throne to its recent demise.

Thawed from his tomb, he had returned to the same movement of loyal officers who shared his original goal for the kingdom. Their task in recovering him had been part of a plan, one that would provide a shining beacon to other factions of the disorganized remains and return to dominance their place in the universe. Even with their collective anger and embarrassment at how their organization had resorted to such menial hiding places, his successful recovery so far placed their trivial feelings at what the kingdom had become aside from the main issues that presently blocked the path back to power.

The movement that brought the general back from exile had only seven members, all colonels of the kingdom, all ignored general braids in favor of the tactically incompetent, but completely loyal, quartet of officers that their former authority had chosen to lead the last offensive against their natural enemy. All of them were survivors of the aftermath of that offensive and so badly was the resulting purge in ranks from the fall of the royal court, that all of them — to the general at least — were the last true faction that was loyal to the kingdom and the interpretation of the mission that the general had subscribed to before his exile.

There were other factions of course, but even with news of the general's return, it wouldn't do anything to halt the battles being fought between alternative factions, each subscribing to a different reinterpretation of the mission that the kingdom had inherited. Many tried to reestablish the military high command, but just as many were trying to launch coups to succeed the place of their dead queen. Either way, the internal wars had robbed them further of experience and abilities and what could've been a resurrected power had vanished into a shadow of its former self.

The general looked down the table at his legion of loyal men and women, his new subordinates.

"So tell me a story" he asked finally, his low voice directed to the colonel in the first chair on his left.

"It will be one that wont please you" the colonel replied.

He was an middle aged man and had rose through the ranks through his specialty of intelligence gathering, but his ascendancy to command had stopped short by the four generals that Beryl had adopted. Had they not been chosen over the established court of qualified officers like himself, it was possible that he could've defeated the Senshi early on, adopting a method of attack that would've insured success. But plans laid down by a tactless queen forbad his method from seeing fruition and in the absence of his, or any competent military leadership, their kingdom was now a shattered internal mess.

"Azrael" the general started "If the downfall of dark kingdom from that wretched witch Beryl wasn't displeasing enough…or that it was because she had taken no advice except from those turncoat incompetent drones she selected above us...there is no greater displeasure you can add to what you've already told me"

"Very well general..." Azrael corrected his general.

"Now tell me what you know"

Azrael breathed silently before briefing his general on a recollection of events since the fall of the kingdom.

"As you know, the kingdom had been felled by the senshi after a fairly erratic campaign to collect energy for Beryl...and it resulted in the royal court being eliminated in the process...all by only five senshi?"

"Only five?"

"Five…Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter...and of course...the princess" The colonel replied before explaining further "They apparently went in person to the royal court to settle with Beryl...what happened exactly isn't very clear, but its results are fairly obvious...the complete obliteration of the palace and the court"

"And they survived?" the general asked

Azrael sat up straighter as he began explaining the post-beryl past "For a time we weren't sure...we had assumed that maybe the sheer force that the Dark kingdom had might have eliminated our principle adversary...but...I cannot recall the name of the group….but at the time our forces were debating among ourselves who would take beryl's place…a group had forced the senshi to show themselves, which disproved the belief at the time that all five had been killed with the destruction of Beryl"

"And this group? Elaborate"

"They almost succeeded in whatever they were doing, I cannot determine their true battle plan, but it appears they were almost successful in the same tactic that the queen attempted"

"But…they failed" the general mused "What happened?"

"Pluto happened" the colonel answered and continued "along with her return, Pluto brought with her the child..." the colonel paused for a beat "...who was apparently born sometime in the future...during a new moon kingdom...this I cannot be sure...I don't have quite the understanding I should...but it turns out she too is a senshi…however by the time we learnt this fact, my ability to monitor these events were cut short by the growing faction wars in our own kingdom..."

"So by the time we lost contact, there were seven… and your talk of a child from the future…" the general concluded

"Yes general" Azrael says, "if the person is really who it is...which given Pluto's existence is quite possible...it means that the moon kingdom will return at some point in the future…when we learnt this, we had decided to seek you from exile"

It was a conclusion that haunted everyone at the table. Their goal was to prevent a second Moon Kingdom, one of the reasons — at least according to their interpretation — that the Dark Kingdom had first come into existence in the first place. News of a new senshi, could only mean a continually existing second moon kingdom and there wasn't a single man or woman in uniform that didn't fear that among all else.

"…when you resumed observations, you mentioned that the senshi were fighting each other" the general continued

"Yes and no..." Azrael answered "...at the time we resumed contact, there was a total of nine, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn had appeared and all were united behind their commander…but there were other senshi…ones we have never heard of, were the opposing force"

"Nine…I count ten"

"The child was absent for the majority of the conflict I'm referring to, when we resumed contact, they had apparently just slain another enemy, then she disappeared...I would assume to return to her own time" Azrael explained and then continued "none the less, we became concerned when we saw Saturn and the two other missing senshi…but the result of this conflict was a stalemate victory"

"What do you mean?" the general, wondering at Azrael's choice of words.

Azrael stared his general in the eyes. By trade, the colonel was an intelligence officer and had lead the task of keeping tabs on the senshi while the other Colonels around the table searched for where the general had been exiled to. Even with his expertise though, he had to admit to himself that he didn't faithfully carry out the task completely. He could blame the internal conflicts that had forced him to aid surviving generals — most of whom were now dead — and the necessary actions he took to find the colonels around this table, but he couldn't use that as an excuse. It was his failure to pick things up faster than led to the reason why he didn't know how the last battle the senshi ended.

"We don't know the true outcome general" Azrael carefully explained "my intelligence assets at the time weren't in the right place...but it would appear at least some Senshi were killed…but since there have been no conflicts since the end of this particular battle...there had been no way to confirm this"

"Which still leaves at least several senshi alive today…" another colonel piped up.

"Denisa, your observations are as always, ever so useful to stating the obvious" Azrael rebutted, annoyed by the interruption "...but your point is noted, the problem lies in their remaining strength, which we have no clear picture of"

"And not getting a clear count on remaining senshi isn't really saying a lot about your abilities as an intelligence officer…"

"Enough!" the general ordered in a low booming voice, surprising his two arguing subordinates "It is fighting like this that resulted in the fall of the kingdom...I will not allow this to affect our mission"

"Our mission?" Denisa asked

The general waited for a moment before he continued to speak.

"Despite your information Azrael, we have to admit to ourselves that speculation on the outcome of their final appearance isn't fact...for which…we have to assume that all the senshi have lived. As such, we will assume that we are still facing the full force of our opposing side..." the general explained calmly "...with the further evidence of the child you mentioned... it indicates that all nine must be alive, at least at some point in the future"

Azrael nodded in agreement, even at being told he was incorrect, Denisa was still adamant at her assessment of chief intelligence officer, thoughts was satisfied at the rebuke he received.

"So what can we possibly do that will prevent the new moon kingdom?" Azrael asked, knowing the answer "we cannot create a negative energy force, or subvert the population against the senshi, we just don't have enough power to..."

"...our former leaders and other factions tried such methods...and that only shows how lacking in foresight that they were"

"Then how do you propose we act?" Denisa, frustrated with waiting for the general to answer.

"Clearly the problem is the senshi...without the direct ability to build our own kingdom for a long time...the only thing we can do is prevent the resurrection of moon kingdom. As with us, for that to occur, it is my belief that they will require their full strength to achieve the goal of resurrecting their kingdom" the general explained "therefore...nine senshi are needed to achieve this goal…but if we were to eliminate one, would they still be able to achieve this goal?"

The others thought about this and then nodded. Even Denisa could see the merit in such a line of thought. One inherently ironic footnote in the Dark Kingdom was the lack of leaders who were willing to think such brutal measures, at this table the general knew were the only loyal colonels left with such a mindset. Azrael was the only one who actually thought about it, and even he had to agree

"It certainly would make the task harder" the intelligence officer replied "but without proper knowledge of how they brought about the second moon kingdom...its not for certain if just taking out one will do, we'd have to take out at least three for the effect your thinking of"

"I have thought about that and you are correct...it will take a concerted effort" the general said "but if we can take one or two out, we have a chance at preventing what our forefathers brought to an end"

There was no disagreement, and with that all of them had signed off on the plan. With a goal marked and a leader to take them there, their campaign had begun.

* * *

The awkward moments following the conversation had mortally wounded any chance of the study session continuing. After only an hour of silent study, everyone excused themselves for the day and returned home. Between their conversation about her plans and the distraction of the temptingly nice weather outside; nothing could be done to prevent them calling it a day earlier than expected. Ami did feel especially sorry for Rei who had called for the study session, only for the others to make a quick exit after that brief interruption, which had none the less broken the rhythm of study in any case. In the end, it was just Rei and Ami studying, but soon the host gad announced that she had things to do and the session of study soon ended. With no choice, Ami had packed up and made her way for home.

With nothing else to think about during the walking from the temple to her own home, Ami had returned thought to the conversation before. It was really a matter of perspective; on the one hand they were right, and it wasn't just for her to spend it alone when she could go to their place, but Ami was never one to be selfish so the idea would have never occurred to her. But on the other hand, she was right; Usagi, Rei and Minako were ill-suited to accommodate her. Rei was the best candidate, but she still couldn't really be distracted or burdened at this time of the year. Makoto being in a similar situation made the most sense, but her commitment to Usagi ruled out the possibility. In the end, as Ami kept reminding herself, this all really depended on what her mother was doing. Ami made herself certain to ask her tonight when she got home, which according to the whiteboard this morning, she was supposed to be home early, a perfect opportunity to talk about this straight away.

Walking down the corridor towards the door to her apartment, Ami looked skyward. Apart from the blinking lights of a 747 taking off from Narita, she could see a cloudless sky with the first twinkle of stars in the night sky and more importantly to her, Ami could tell by just looking that the clear early evening skies that it promised to be a chilly night ahead. Even without having the news weather forecast in front of her, Ami knew how cold it would be, from both living through past winters and just from the knowledge obtained, it was enough to tempt the thought of spending her time tonight at the heated table that sometimes occupied her bedroom. But Ami also had work to do, and her computer wasn't quite as easy to move around as semi-portable heated table. The reverse cycle air conditioner would have to do.

"I'm home"

Nothing replied, which wasn't all that surprising. Shrugging at the thought, Ami exchanged her shoes for slippers and walked to the kitchen where she flipped on a few lights. By the time Ami started for her room, she had already suspected by now that she had beaten her mother home. With the seemingly random work roster that her mother got at the hospital, along with the commute, it would be no surprise if she was being wasn't home yet. Ami entered her bedroom briefly to drop her bag off by the desk and turn on the air conditioner in her room to start heating it up for her study session. Finished with that chore she returned to the kitchen. After confirming nobody was home except herself, — a common affair for Ami — she proceeded to check the whiteboard on the wall.

Since the two rarely saw each other, the two of them had a whiteboard to relay messages or plan details. As expected, the side of the board with mom's message was the same since this morning.

_Home: =5:30, might be delayed_

'Okay, it's almost 6:00…which would mean…" Ami sighed as she turned her head expecting and then seeing the blinking red light on the phone, which at once told Ami knew what was going on. The event was one she had grown up with for years, so the disappointment had worn off long ago. Deciding to not delay the inevitable, Ami walked to the phone and pressed the play button

"1 recorded message" the monotone computer voice declared, as though it was the first such occasion this had happened, before a real voice came on, "Hey Ami, its your mother…I'm sorry I cant make it home when I said, I might need to stay back another hour or two…"

Ami didn't really need to listen to the rest of the message; it was the same old story with her mother. Ever the dedicated doctor, her mother was often the first to volunteer to stand in for someone if they couldn't make it to work. From an outside perspective, one would easily call if selfish and neglectful of her daughter, if it weren't for the fact her job was a doctor that sometimes worked in the Emergency room. To Ami this was reality, day in and day out, a five in seven chance her mother wouldn't be home at all, let alone on time. But like Ami had explained before, to her friends it wasn't something she had problems accepting. It in fact served for her a warning of what her tenure as a doctor might be like.

With a few key strokes, the message was stopped, deleted and reset to record future messages. Deciding what to do after that was almost a routine for Ami, given how many times this occurred. For now she had a choice, between making dinner or a shower before study. On reflection while she weighed her choices, Ami decided to check the fridge, which told her at once that dinner would have to be light. Both Mizuno's could cook, but at the same time both didn't like to waste food. For a moment, the idea of making a soup was tempting, but upon inspection of the cupboards, there was nothing to make it with. Seeing that there were no leftovers left and that they were coming up on shopping day, Ami's conclusion came to an obvious answer.

"Guess I'll have a shower" Ami spoke to nobody but the walls

With that, she closed the fridge, flipped off the kitchen lights and walked off to her room.

* * *

Not for the first time in her life, Saeko wished she lived closer to work. It wasn't that the hospital was too far away in terms of distance, but Juban Secondary Hospital was a long commute to her home in terms of time and with the track work currently being done on her train line today, it had added to the delay that had come in the form of overtime. She had known about the train work and had she tried as much as possible, at least for today to avoid the traditional peak hour rush coming from the other districts. This wasn't hard to accomplish, but more often than not, there was always a problem that came up at work to prevent her leaving, which as of late was a problem with increasing frequency.

Among the current in-house problems between doctors and the administrative operators as of late, there wasn't enough doctors on call at the moment. There were nurses, chemists and a plethora of administration staff but with so many new doctors either going off to train in the United States or being redirected to the country hospitals, it felt like senior doctors like herself were being stretched thin. It was something of a subject that politicians and media were all barking about the various reasons. Popular debate pointed to the ongoing rescission, an aging generation, youth not wanting to take on difficult jobs, the brain drain to America, the training being outdated and all manner of popular arguments, but nobody seemed to offer a solution.

Dr. Saeko Mizuno, while not quite able to suggest her own solutions, was at least doing her part in trying to stem the time before more doctors could fill the billets at hospitals. Long since moved into the clinical side of things, Saeko however still worked as a doctor for the emergency room sometimes, it was a hard job and harder still given that she didn't have as much support she needed, but given the alternatives, she merely worked with what she had. It had earned her a reputation as a miracle worker and while it bought her respect of many of her peers, it only aided in adding to the workload the administration left her professional work ethic could handle. Smart, diligent and conducting herself in the manner as a trained professional should, Saeko worked with an excellent team, that had in some places had been created from the ground up.

It was a demanding job and it only added to the inability to spend time away from the job. Saeko had gone to her share of conferences and lecturers, done the graveyard shift more than anyone else and she had rarely taken a sick day. Combining these factors into her already stellar reputation; Saeko was a woman who yearned for a break. The problem was of course the same problem that prevented her from leaving on time; the workload just didn't allow it. There just wasn't enough doctors to allow for vacations between staff and new doctors were not staying long, they were either residents on training — before they were hired by a private clinic — or visiting groups from other countries, but Saeko and her doctors were left in dismay as the failed to hang on to any of them.

As a result of this, on an average of five nights a week, Saeko was asked by the administrators to stay behind and watch over the junior residents, all of whom in her opinion lacked not only experience, but the work ethic that her generation had. A harsh generalization but it was none the less true. Today alone had justified her opinion again, after her timely departure today was delayed because a resident had called in sick. The resulting inconvenience in her day followed, which involved taking four hours to stand in for the sick resident while another senior doctor was recalled from their day off. Now after almost five hours the time she was suppose to leave, Saeko was almost home. It had long since become a habit, but it didn't mean that she wanted it to stay like this.

"I'm home"

Nothing, which like Ami had noted, wasn't too surprising. It was getting late and expecting her daughter to be up and about was about as unlikely as it was her getting off on time anymore. Like her daughter did five hours ago, she proceeded to take her shoes off in the same manner Ami did, walk to the kitchen and turn the lights on, and just like Ami, she checked the board and phone for messages. Once that was done she proceeded, just like her daughter, to do the same things as before. To an observer, this arrangement of events would almost seem comical, but was none the less a sign that despite their relatively little contact, both still resembled each other, not only in appearances as many noted, by in mannerisms and even thinking pattern.

After determining the fridge was about as promising for dinner as Ami concluded several hours earlier, she proceeded to her room, but not before noting with some surprise the light under Ami's door. Well this was certainly a rare surprise, but not one that she got annoyed or excited about. Given her attendance in cram schools, Ami rarely stayed up late to study unless it was before exams.

"Ami?" Saeko knocked on the door softly.

Inside, to what would've been a present surprise to her mother, Ami was almost about to fall asleep at her desk. But the sudden notice of her mother's arrival home however electrified her back into wakefulness.

"Yes?"

Confirming that she was awake, Saeko opened the door, to find her daughter looking back at her from the desk where she had her notes spread out and her laptop running.

"You know shouldn't really be working at the computer this late at night" Saeko warned her "how much more do you have to do?"

"I'm actually done for the night, I was closing up" Ami replied, this much was true; she needed to get some sleep if she wanted to tackle the exam tomorrow.

"Alight" Saeko returned "I'm sorry I wasn't home sooner"

"It's alright" Ami smiled as she got up to hug her mother.

"How did the study session go today?" Saeko then asked while she embraced her only daughter. For the moment, Ami didn't really have an answer to that, having five hours of time, it hadn't really occurred to her, just that she had to ask her mother something. She'd almost forgotten to, but Saeko did remind her.

"We got some work done, but we had to finish early" Ami replied "everyone else had other plans"

Releasing from the hug, Saeko wondered to herself how Ami's friends ever planned on passing exams when they didn't put in enough study. Ami had long since told her about the study habits of her classmates, and while they had been gradually improving, they were no where near as diligent as they needed to be. Usagi was by far the worst, and at least according to Ami, the one who had made the most progress in recent times. That it took three years of free tutorage from her own daughter to accomplish, was a footnote that Saeko choose to ignore.

Before Ami could ask her question, her mother turned to enter her own room and drop her purse and jacket on the hamper. She was quite tired and just wanted to get some sleep. Despite the assurance that she could come to work at ten the next day, Saeko had lived too long to believe in an adult guarantee. Ami followed her five steps to the door, but no further.

"Mom, can I ask you something?"

"Sure" Saeko replied as opened the door to the walk-in robe. While they never really saw each other, it was actually quite rare for Ami to ask for anything.

"The others were talking about Christmas plans this year…and I was just wondering" Ami paused for a second "what are our plans?"

Saeko stopped changing for a moment and pondered about that for a few seconds, it had dawned on her that she hadn't really thought about it for the first time since hearing the news on her mother's change in plans. She knew the administration's roster owed her some days off, but with the staff shortages and the complete lack of guarantee in getting a day off—

"I'm not sure" Saeko replied honestly "I'm pretty sure I'm working this year though"

"I see" Ami replied, her tone not quite disappointed, rather use to the news.

Saeko finished donning her nightgown and walked out again to face her daughter, who showed the face that had heard it all before. There was no denying it, last two years she had promised to be home, but it ended up being an awkward day where she could only be home for a few hours, leaving Ami to keep her mother company. But with her mother staying home, Ami's plans now consisted of nothing.

'Maybe that was why she is asking' Saeko pondered realizing for the first time what Ami was actually thinking.

It hadn't happened before and despite the schedule Saeko endured, Ami never really spent Christmas alone. When she was married, her husband would take Ami out to an amusement park and after he left, Ami and herself spent the day at home. But as she grew older, so did her ability to spend time off on this day lessen, always the resulting consequence of becoming a more experienced doctor. It made you more valuable to the staff, especially when experience was becoming a rare quality.

"I'm sorry to say it Ami..." Saeko said "...but with the short staffing problem, I don't know if I can get the time off"

Saeko could tell when she was hiding something when her look now changed to more sullen one, though even if she asked, Ami wouldn't say so. It was merely one of the things that Saeko's divorce had effected on Ami's upbringing. Saeko had been a strict study master and concerned about her daughter's health as a new doctor was of any patient while Ami's father was far different, quite okay with her playing around in place of study. What easily created conflict was her ability to live up the standards of both parents' standards. Whenever Ami naturally started being more adapt at following her mother's traits, such as studying; her husband would try to convince her to do something else. At the same time, whenever Ami wanted something, like father had encouraged her to do, Saeko would say no because at the time, her salary alone couldn't afford certain luxuries and she didn't want to spoil Ami.

When he left, Ami stopped displaying traits of him and squarely focused on the traits Saeko gave her. For certain, one result of her upbringing after her divorce, was Ami becoming afraid of asking for things. In recent times, this trait had softened up thanks — Saeko was sure — to the friends that Ami made, but her daughter still hid her feelings, even on asking for her to stay for Christmas. That was always a big hurdle for Ami she knew, because while she wanted her mother home for the holidays, Saeko had it almost hammered into her how important it was for her to be at the hospital. As a result, the excuse she had for not being home had become as normal as the one she used for not being home any other time of the year.

"Is there something your friends discussed?" Saeko guessed, while tired, her deductive reasoning never really slept. Clearly they brought up their plans, and maybe Ami discussed her…lack of plans; having only met her freinds formally all at least once, she could guess at their suggestions.

"Yes" Ami went on and explained "They suggested that I go over to their places"

"And why don't you?" Saeko leaded up against the door to rest, despite being two decades her senior, Ami still was about as tall as her mother, if you didn't notice the age marks or more mature doctor's expression, you could almost say she was an older sister to Ami.

"Well…" Ami started to recite what she had said before earlier in the day "Usagi and Minako already have a full house, relatives are visiting them. Rei has the temple events to worry about... and Makoto is staying with Usagi"

"So don't you stay over as well?"

"Usagi had to spend a few weeks getting permission…and they just don't have the room, Minako is pretty much the same"

Saeko pondered for awhile, Ami was right about not burdening the temple at this time of the year, the preparations and activity from Christmas to new years required too much attention.

"What about Setsuna?"

Ami froze for a moment. Despite all the things that happened during the last battle, they did remain pretty strongly connected to the other senshi, but besides the occasional meetings, Ami didn't really think of them as a place to spend Christmas with. It wasn't cold feet, it just had never occurred to her and in this case as well, even they had an excuse.

"I spoke to Setsuna last month, I think they were planning to go to Hokkaido for a ski-trip, if I asked them, they'd have to revise their booking"

Defeated of all possible options, Saeko rolled her back onto the door and looked upwards at the ceiling. Ami's friends were all too busy — though Saeko briefly wondered how hard it would be for Ami to stay at either Usagi or Minako's — and though from the sounds of it, she was right in not burdening them. Sending her to see her sister or her brother was one of the few things that came to mind, but without a real idea on what they were doing, it was pointless. Thinking about them for a while however did remind her of something else she had to do. While not really one for western traditions, her family did adopt some of the Christmas fervor in presents. While Saeko couldn't answer that question now, she could at least buy herself some time to ask about getting Christmas off.

"I'm not sure what my plans are but…" Saeko started to make her pitch "but do you finish school on Friday?"

"Yes, we don't even have a Saturday class this year" Ami replied, surprised that her mother had to be reminded when her holidays were starting.

"How about you and I go do some Christmas shopping then, I still have to buy presents for my family. So how about we do that this Friday?"

It was very unusual for her to make plans like this at all, so it understandably took Ami awhile to formulate a reply "are you sure you can get the time off for that?"

Knowing that the question wasn't suppose to be offensive was really what made it more so, but that it stung more for being true was really what bugged Saeko. Trying to get home on time, on a selected day was simply impossible…but what the heck, she'd try to anyway. If they couldn't give her Christmas, they could at least give her an afternoon and evening to do the shopping and do something with her daughter.

"I'll do my best"

With that, Ami started to smile again, when her mother she would do her best, she meant it. Sure there was the quite possibility that the administration would try stopping her, but there had been times in the past where she pulled through for Ami.

"I hope you can get the time too" Ami replied standing back upright and turning for her room. "I need to get some sleep"

"Goodnight Ami" Saeko replied quickly.

"Goodnight mom"

Just like that, Ami returned to her room, closed the door, and a minute later the light under her door dimmed out. Saeko now pondered about the promise she had just made; well it wasn't the first time she had said things and not been able to follow through…but there were also an equal number of times when she did. Closing her own door and turning out the lights, Saeko slumped into bed and wondered about it for another few minutes. At the end it was all the same, despite all she had learn about adult promises, she still believed to try.

'I will do my best'

* * *

_Author's commentary: The first chapter can be a real pain to write, though it was a lot worse by the time I came back to re-read everything in terms of a clarity. What my problem was really establishing all the ground details for the rest of the story, asking myself 'how much information is too much' which was a common problem. Overall Its a decent start and it lays the ground work for this hopefully soon to be finished work._


	3. Chapter 2: Confined Space

**Chapter 2: Confined space**

The whole week since their agreement had flashed by quickly for the both of them. For Ami, it had been as her friends coined it, a battle of endurance. Between the start of the week and the last class on Friday, ten consecutive tests over five days stood between them which for Ami at least, it actually presented her with a challenge. While a test on its own was a cakewalk, having to study for ten, some on the same subject, actually gave Ami a chance to stretch her abilities and give her something approaching risk, since while the standard of pass was a lot lower, her own standards demanded something quite different. For the others, merely getting a pass was enough, and while they had close calls, by Friday, their confidence from passing exams had helped them fight through the last couple.

For Saeko, it had been a busier week. On Monday, she had made it the priority of the week to get all of Friday off, having expanded on her promise with her daughter, which in her mind for the moment had been etched into forty foot high stone tablets. After talking to fellow clinicians about the need for the time off, Saeko had gone to additional step to carefully rearrange the roster to place the most reliable of the staff — in terms of attendance and responsibility — to be on duty Friday. It had been a herculean effort to achieve at all, the roster was usually set in stone on Sunday and having it changed for any reason was almost considered blasphemy by the accountant types in the administration office, but Saeko got it to work her way. It meant that she had to do three consecutive late night shifts, but it had assured her that day off would be approved.

During the week, Ami had noted through the message board that her mother had secured Friday, but she had to work hard all week to get it. With that, Ami now had a goal not that much different from her friends, who merely just wanted to make it to Friday. She put more effort into her studies and by some providence, might have been the cause for her to get a better score in every exam. Things seemed to be coming together for both Mizuno's, at least until the previous day, where things started to fall apart. Just like Ami would inevitably miss a few details that appeared on her exam, Saeko missed a few details that she didn't prepare to cover.

The first harbinger had been delivered from the head of the ER department. While sympathizing with her position, he informed her that she would need to come in the cover for a doctor that was going with a group down to Kyoto to a conference that she had forgotten all about. Despite protests to the contrary and an informal plea to her own department head for a substitution, Saeko had come out of with no choice but to agree to a surrender of some time on her day off, which she had least had managed to reduce from a full day to just the morning shift with her being relieved at 2:00pm that afternoon. It was a compromise arrangement which allowed for enough time to rush home, change and be ready for greet Ami at the door for once.

But like all adult promises, Saeko had made the mistake of trusting too much in the words spoken the other day and despite assuring Ami this morning that this was a mild setback, her relief wasnt going to show after discovering that the doctor that was supposed to relieve her had a family emergency to attend to. As senior doctor in the department at the moment, Saeko wasn't able to simply leave the ward. The junior doctors and residents, the ones she hand picked for today — and had the most promise in — depended on Saeko for difficult cases and in rare advent, aiding in triage. Upon learning the circumstances that further delayed her departure, Saeko had put off making the call for an hour, instead trying to find someone to relieve her. When the hour passed and it came up on the time school was letting out for the day, Saeko faced the inevitable.

Now sitting in her office with only the anticipation of an accident requiring her attention, Saeko had run out of time to make excuses. Sighing into the phone as she heard the dial tone, she pressed in the numbers for her home, waited the seven rings, and then relayed a message she would rather not have delivered.

* * *

At roughly the same time of her mother's call, the final exam had been completed and in one combined action, pens dropped as every student suddenly felt exuberance upon completing the last of their exams and the three weeks of holiday became in range of their grasp. Homeroom soon followed and along with the usual spoken caution to be careful and warnings to not cause a civil disturbance during the break, teach homeroom teacher read out a lists of students who would be called back next week to re-do exams. Heavy in anticipation, Minako, Usagi and Makoto had held their breath as they waited for the homeroom teacher to stop speaking. When she put the paper down, the three almost ejected into the air from their seats in excitement.

Upon learning this, the three dunces were more than happy to report their success to Rei.

"You actually passed?" Rei cocked an eyebrow at Usagi

"Yep" Usagi poked her tongue at the miko "no cheating …55% was my lowest!"

Rei shrugged, taking one last prod at her friend, "Well, you may have passed, but at least I can rest assured that you wont be catching up to me any time soon"

It was a jab that Usagi fumed over and couldn't deny. At 78%, Rei was far out of her league, and Ami was a completely different level, who had an 'as expected' lowest score of 98% and 5 perfect scores of 100%. While none had doubted Ami's intelligence, they weren't aware of how much impact the important plans Ami had been working towards, had in affecting her performance. They had been the driving motivation that gave her the stamina she needed, which the other four had struggled all week to barely match. Even Minako had barely cut clear of 60%. Her pass was thanks in part to Artemis, who refused to accept any excuses and basically tutoring her intensely when Ami wasn't around. Throughout the week Minako rediscovered again that Artemis, when prompted, could be just as good a teacher of math as Ami was to her.

With the laugh that followed Usagi's misfortune at comparing grades, the talk of their exams faded into the past and the five talked about their plans for the rest of today. At once, Makoto asserted that a trip to karaoke was deserved, which proposal was quickly accepted by Usagi and Rei who were all for.

"So Ami, what are your plans now? Is your mother just waiting for you to come home?" Rei asked

"I think so" Ami replied "but she had it on the message board this morning that she had to go in this morning to cover for someone"

"What?" Minako got to ask first "I thought she got the whole day off?"

"Yeah, but they are short staffed a lot, so when someone calls in sick…she doesn't have much choice" Ami answered lamely.

"But she will be home in time right?"

Ami didn't answer, as much as she was looking forward to it, she hadn't stop ignoring the little niggling doubt that she would be able to make it and when that doubt found its mark this morning it worried Ami. She was sure that it could only be until two in the afternoon, but that might not stop the hospital from giving her more work to do. As the hours passed throughout the day, Ami's enthusiasm for the day had slowly soured slightly as reminders came and went, knowing it could go either way. Her mother had worked pretty hard this week, each night coming home very tired...but it only took one thing for all her effort to go to waste.

"Ami?" Minako prompted.

"I hope so…"Ami finally answered, still unsure of herself "mom did arrangements to try get today off"

Doubt was truly the enemy of confidence, at least in the case of Ami. Minako pondered the reply, while not so sharp on the books, her grades didn't mark her ability to read minds and emotions. In the case of Ami, her lack of assurance told much to the blonde-haired teenager about the concern she hadn't voiced. Minako still felt guilty for putting Ami on the spot like that on Sunday and remembered that it was that conversation that prompted this promise in the first place. Now it sounded like Ami's mother couldn't even get an afternoon off.

'Well, it's not like neither worked real hard to make this happen' Minako thought before framing her reply "I'm sure she'll be there…she did promise you didn't she?"

It was a good try at assuring her friend, but Ami's reply pretty much summarized reality.

"I'm a little too old to believe in those kinds of promises"

Nobody really had an answer to that, not even Usagi whom always forwent the usual restraints of logic and common sense to say something about not giving up. They were not in middle school anymore, all of them were second year high school students, about to become third year students in another three months. Even for their age, they weren't too young to understand the fundamental place reality had on life. But despite that and because of her more than implicit understanding of reality, Minako — whom hadn't even decided yet on what she would be doing — decided then and there to intervene.

"Well, if she doesn't, give me a call…you still need to go anyway right?"

"Eh?" Usagi turned in surprise "I thought you were coming with us!"

"Sorry Usagi" Minako replied apologetically, bowing with hand up and praying "After all those exams this week, I just want to lie down and take a breather for a bit…I'll go next time"

Ami was surprised at what Minako just offered, but she wasn't sure about it. It sure wasn't the same as spending time with her mother, but at least it wouldn't be a wasted afternoon. Ami was troubled over her explanation and wondered if it would be too much to ask of Minako. None the less, it was a nice offer.

"Thanks…"

The five of them reached the next corner where would go their own ways. Rei, Usagi and Makoto headed towards the shopping district, while Ami and Minako left for their respective homes. Walking alone now, Ami thought about the offer from Minako, which didn't require too much consideration. If mom was home, then there were no worries, but if she wasn't, then Ami had the option to call Minako and go with her, if of course Ami felt like actually going out at all after learning of any new arrangement in their plans. Ami sided with her optimism for now and do so until she had a reason to think otherwise, but in the meantime, she still had to ask herself what she would do if her mother wasn't at home, it would occupy her thought process for the entire duration of her walk home.

On another road not too far away, Minako's thoughts were, as usual for the moment, focused on someone else's problems. Ami's mood was concerning her, it was bad enough that she couldn't get to spend Christmas with her family — a fact that she confirmed on Tuesday— but hearing that her mother couldn't even spare several hours to go shopping was worrying. Her interest in Ami's problem only spawned further when she thought about the relation between the two, which unlike her own mother, Ami's actually did make honest efforts to see her daughter when she could. There had to be some cruel reason why Ami's mother never really had the chance to talk to her daughter.

Minako had heard the reasons from Ami, but it was still something for the self-proclaimed goddess of love to consider.

* * *

Ami's thoughts halted after she realized that all it was doing was giving her a migraine asking the same question over and over, and she simply walked thoughtless until she reached her home. Everything there looked the same, from the lack of mail in the lobby box — mail day was typically Wednesday — to the same elevator music and to the same city wind she got as she walked to the door.

"I'm home!"

Nothing…well it wasn't like she was really hoping for it at the end. The second or two Ami took to register even a muffled reply passed and it confirmed for her what she had detested from learning. Stepping into her apartment, Ami's mood now of apathy changed while she exchanged her shoes for slippers and by the time she walked into the kitchen, it had become depression while she proceeded to check one final thing. The board was unchanged…still said she was going to be home at 2:00pm after stating at 6am. Ami's side simply said she left for school at some ninety minutes later and her planned return time was shy of two minutes later than she actually arrived home.

"Well, that means…" Ami sighed as she turned her eyes to the other wall where sure enough, the black phone with a blinking red light flashed '...well, at least you know now…now what is the reason this time?'

Ami's apathy induced depression turned into dejection when she heard the message.

"Hey Ami …" her mother spoke, not quite as cheerful as normal messages "I'm sorry but…the evening duty doctor couldn't come in…I don't know how long I'll be…just…just go ahead to the place we going to…I'll try find a way to get there, please…I'll see you there then, Bye Ami"

For at least a minute, Ami's eyes only focused on the red light on the phone, its blinking constant as a heartbeat. Eventually it sunk in for her and Ami jammed her finger home on the delete key. In as many words, her week of anticipation had drained away and all that was left was a melancholy feeling that the day now felt meaningless. Could she really have expected it to happen? Was it really possible to arrange such a thing? While Ami couldn't have means-tested it, the answer was pretty obvious now. Ami took a deep breath and looked down for a moment. When she was done expelling air and what anger she felt in Ami head, she for now didn't know what to do. After the obvious moment of pause, Ami collected her school bag from the kitchen bench and walked back to her bedroom.

In one mighty breath, Ami expelled all the air when she hit the bed and closed her eyes for a moment. That moment turned into a minute…then five minutes, then seven minutes before she opened them again. Rolling over onto her back, Ami looked back upto the ceiling, she had…in her head wasted enough time on nothing, now it was time to work out what to do. Her previously ignored options now became relevant and at the same time pointless.

'Meet me at the place we were going to meet up, I'll catch up' Ami summarized the message she received before asking herself "for how long do you want me wait?"

She didn't hate her mother; Ami couldn't have ever had it in her. At the same time, her ability to rely on her words was marred twice by the compromise in a single day. We'll…it wasn't her fault, the hospital simply needed her right now and Ami was use to that by now, wasn't she? Maybe she could make the third…arrangement...work. Well, it really depended, was she actually trying to meet up with her daughter, or was the hospital trying to test how gullible both Mizuno's were. If that was the case, why should Ami really go? But what if she did end up making it out there and Ami didn't go…wouldn't that look great. It was a classic impasse and a simple phone call to the office of Dr Saeko Mizuno could at least directly answer that.

"Well, I guess I'll give it a try" Ami decided, "what do I have to loose?"

That though took a moment to process and as a result, Ami's next action was to get out of bed and return to the phone, after several rings finally the other end picked up.

"Hey, it's Ami" hey voice doing its best to hide her disappointment "Where do you want to meet up?"

* * *

It had been an afternoon where she wished that if justice existed everywhere, Saeko could've left responsibility to the most trustworthy person and run off. But even then, even if it was all okay and nothing bad happened, Saeko would feel forever guilty for doing such a thing. Sitting in her office, now well after over two hours past the time she was suppose to return home, Saeko knew she was too detached to be visibly upset, too professional to complain, but it didn't mean she couldn't have feelings for the moment. Gloom, guilt and apathy all rolled into one emotion of failure, she had be unable to find a single clinician to cover for her at all, which meant she would be covering until 10:00pm. It would be ruinous to her health — no doctor in his or her right mind operated that long — and what seemed more important right now, it would be destructive to her relationship with Ami.

And from the looks of things, it was all for nothing. Sitting in her office since 1:00pm, Saeko had really had nothing to do, the patient load didn't really occur until later at night anyway and she had really had nothing else to do but review the medical notes left by the doctor who did the graveyard shift. It was the most annoying thing about her job sometimes, when it turned out that she had nothing to do. Saeko could walk the halls and find herself something, but her task here was to be there when something complicated came up, but in selecting the best junior residents for Friday shift, she had almost availed herself of that task. They could handle the job quite well on their own since all of them the best of the current group with certainly a few promising long term prospects if they didn't get bought up by the private clincs elsewhere first.

It meant a slow day, promising to be a slow night which in that time Saeko could do nothing else but stare at the clock on her desk and watch her chance to do something with her daughter slip away. Saeko felt doomed, at least until she heard the knock on the door.

"Kaya, is that you? Come in" Saeko sat upright and focusing her attention to the door. Much to her surprise the door revealed not a junior resident, rather a senior doctor.

"Hiro" she stood up "Aren't you early?"

"I am?" Hiroyoshi looked down at his watch and checked "Indeed your right...they won't be serving the dinner menu for another hour"

The two chuckled, thought Saeko retained her surprise. Dr Hiroyoshi Reed was actually the doctor that was supposed to take the next graveyard shift. The man had a quiet, friendly demeanor about him, coming from many years as an instructor for the surgery teams and a supervising doctor in the pediatric wards. He didn't really converse a lot with the other senior doctors, mainly due of his casual nature, but he did have a small following of friends among the staff. While frowned upon by the others, Hiroyoshi had a good bedside with patients, and an almost easy-going relationship the junior residents and nursing staff around him.

"So why are you really here so early?" Saeko sat down again and relaxed,

"Well to be honest…" Hiroyoshi sat down "...your friend Hatori called me a call when he called in…he told me you were in a bit of a predicament"

"If those words were more accurate, they would cause penetration wounds…" Saeko replied with subtle humor, then continued "...I guess it's my fault, I knew it was possible but…"

Hiroyoshi just sat their listening to Saeko's explanation. When she finished he simply asked "So what she got that message and went? Where do you think she'll be right now?"

"Oh I don't know…" Saeko started to do the math, "time to get changed…and if she went alone, she'll be down at the station in around 30 minutes"

"Well then..." Hiro stood up again "...Why don't you see if you can beat her there?"

Saeko's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when his veiled invitation was heard, but soon the bulbs dimmed out when reality sank in, "I don't think she'll come, I've already let her down twice today"

"Well, why don't you give her a call? Tell her your heading out now"

It couldn't hurt to try. With Dr. Reed watching, she entered her phone number and waited, after seven rings, she got the answering machine.

"Nobody is home"

"Well, either she headed straight to the shopping centre or left before you called" Hiroyoshi replied, and continued before Saeko could make another comment "…I'll fiddle around with the timetable to try get Hatori or Ryosuke to cover me later on"

"How can I thank you?"

"Don't worry about it" Hiro went to the coat stand to collect her associates jacket "…only reason why I'm here at all is because I had to drop my daughters off for a sleepover"

Draped with her jacket, Saeko grabbed her bag and thanked her walking miracle again; every now and then it was nice that she wasn't the one performing the difficult task of making the impossible happen.

* * *

"Our first task is to update our information"

"Tch…."

The first response didn't take a lot of guessing, Denisa proving forever that she would only be a warrior, just as Azrael would forever be an intelligence officer, the common problems with warriors were they didn't understand how helpful knowing their enemy was. The general however had long since learnt this lesson and therefore had reason to listen to Azrael.

"Elaborate"

"Since we have very little to work with, I think it would be prudent for us to execute some sort of test attack on them" Azrael started to explain "there is also the distinct, but not entirely unlikely possibility that the senshi are no longer in the same area they have been living, if we're to determine where to attack, we need better information…where they are, how long it takes them to show up. How many are alive, how powerful are they as individuals and as a team"

It was a tall order, but as typical for the man who spoke, it was also correct. For the general to achieve his objective, he would need to know all of this.

"Wouldn't attacking only announce to the Senshi on be alert?" Denisa argued "you're giving away the element of surprise"

"The generals who worked under beryl threw away the element of surprise by attempting to act covertly under their noses…" the intelligence officer corrected his equal "and without knowledge on where they hide, the element of surprise is useless to even us"

"You want us to just storm a place and hope that some Senshi will show up?"

"Yes"

The general was silent and unmoved, his eyes gazed at both arguments. One thing he knew that resulted in the failures of before was the inability to object to the queen when her decisions didn't even follow a clear objective. While there had been certain logic to it, it had been strategically flawed by the fact that the enemy was constantly defeating the operations trying to achieve this. But while the general was pleased to see that at least one of his colonels was objective in thinking, it was Azrael's logical analyzing to the situation that won out. To achieve their objective, they would need to size up the forces and work out the best target — logically the weakest of the group — which would be preferred given his limited fighting force.

Without words, he turned his head to Azrael and nodded for him to continue, confirming that at least this time, the general preferred the intelligence officer's analysis over the objectivity of the warrior. Denisa was the only one uncomfortable with that arrangement, typically relying on instincts instead of calculated plans, the intelligence officer's plan sounded awfully like the kind of schemes that the four generals tried last time. While a legitimate thought, she had also forgotten that those general's schemes never truly aimed themselves at targeting the senshi. Azrael was doing the reverse, instead of operating covertly, he was deliberately looking for the senshi.

"The first attack will need to identify at least three of the things we need to know...their locale, their reaction time, and their strength" Azrael described "based on previous attacks, they have remained consistent in an area called Juban…but we need to confirm this"

"Why?" another colonel to Denisa's left asked "that's a pattern we can work on"

"Colonel Soyuz...It's been 18 months since the known activity and if they are people like the society they live in, their prone to migrate according their needs…determining this is important in evaluating how difficult our task is…"

Everyone nodded, with the general noting that even Denisa was now listening to reason. She however was not as impressed, Denisa did get it that finding the senshi in the first place was necessary, but doing so without really trying to locate them for a surprise attack felt like a mistake. If the senshi were in full force as general conferred to believe, their limited forces were not strong enough for the kind of objective that the general was after. With that in mind, she decided that despite Azrael's cunningness, there was only one way to execute a plan, and only a warrior knew how to do best accomplish this.

"I'll lead the attack party" Denisa spoke.

The others looked wary of her, but were not going to comment on her ruthlessness, she was among the best fighters gathered here, nobody could dispute it, but the general however did.

"The need for you to lead this attack is not necessary, you are a too valuable a warrior for this mission, when the time comes for your distinct abilities, we'll need you then" the general wisely, but sternly commanded, looking to the end of the table at the person best suited. Without flinching, he chose the person who would lead the attack.

"Achen, prepare for battle for tonight, take your auto-troops and prepare to move"

Achen rose from his seat and bowed, not that he was really sure why. The man before him could've sat on the throne by now, and was a respectable warrior and leader who fear trailed behind him. But at the same time, by assigning him the first group, his value was accessed and his was deemed the least needed of the group.

"Fight to the last auto-troop; insure you collect as much information you can for Azrael and return to us...use your instincts well and cautiously"

"I will not fail my objective, General"

* * *

Despite Saeko's earlier calculation, Ami wouldn't have been at the train station now had she not been waiting for Minako to catch up. She had been napping for just over half an hour when the call came through from Ami taking up on her offer. While disappointed as well for Ami's bad fortune, Minako would at least fulfill the promise she had made before and come along. After first getting ready for a night out and deciding that Artemis could come as well, Minako had run for the train she had missed by mere seconds. After waiting for the next one, Minako and Artemis — whom the latter had been hiding in former's backpack, as so to not annoy JR staff — arrived fifteen minutes later than planned.

Upon arriving, all they had to do was find Ami among the crowds of homebound salary men and the early Friday night crowd, padded in numbers tonight by high school students now on holiday. With Artemis hanging on to Minako in the confines of her backpack, they eventually found her where she was suppose to be.

"I was starting to get worried" Ami replied surprised to see them finally; she had been looking the other way when Minako tapped her on the back.

"Sorry…" Minako apologized "we had trouble leaving the house"

"Like what she was going to wear" Artemis very quietly murmured, his proximity to Minako's ear ensured that he was knocked on the head.

"So where are we going?"

"To the super centre" Ami replied "I haven't been there yet..."

"Oh that place" Minako was now excited "that place is huge, I'm surprised you haven't, it's got everything in there"

The Juban Super center was a new development recently completed, with an indoor public pool, a bowling alley, and a roof miniature golf course which had views of the bay. The shopping centre was the first stage of a massive building project that included a residential condo tower and an office tower. The completion of the centre meant the profits could go towards bankrolling the venture for the next stage of construction. Even with the profits however, the proposed stage 2's 'office tower' wouldn't even be finished until early 1999 according to the advertisement.

"So your mother couldn't show up after work?" Minako asked, hoping for a positive answer

At the moment Minako said that, Saeko finally emerged from the exit of the train station. She hadn't really checked to see where she was on the train, it just hadn't been feasible, and her luck now relied on finding Ami at the station, if not, her next guess would be the shopping centre the both were planning on visiting. Saeko tried her best to look beyond the walls of human migration heading outside, but just before she gave up, the elder Mizuno suddenly noticed the distinct long blond hair of someone familiar. Focusing on it for curiosity sake, she then saw the person standing next to her. Saeko's absent luck day had just pulled another miracle in the space of an hour.

"I don't think so…" Ami said not noticing from a distance someone looking back at her

"I know the feeling" Minako replied "...but at least your mother tries, mine wouldn't even make the effort"

"I mean I understand why…it's just…" Ami caught a glimpse finally of the person making a bee-line through the human traffic to them. At first Ami thought it was nobody special, another worker just crossing the tide of salary men and evening goers to get somewhere else, but Ami focused on the person and failed to continue her sentence.

"Ami…what is it?" Minako quickly turned her head looking at the crowd. Not seeing what Ami was looking at, she turned back and saw that her friend's expression had changed completely.

"Mom!"

The two Mizuno's briefly embraced.

"You made it" Ami was almost at a lost for words, not quite emotional, just surprised.

"Well, someone finally came through for me" Saeko explained "sorry I was so late"

"That's alright mom"

"And you though I was late" Minako chuckled "Hello Dr. Mizuno, long time no see"

"Good evening Ms Aino" Saeko replied "I take it Ami invited you"

"Sort of" Minako laughed "You see…uh…"

Ami took over for Minako, feeling it was justly her right to explain herself "When I wasn't sure you could come tonight… I asked Minako if she could come…and keep me company while I waited…"

Touching as it was, it wasn't quite the truth, Saeko knew it, but she wouldn't punish her daughter for it. As she could summarize, her daughter had been worried about if she hadn't shown up and had invited her friend as backup plan. She had it right, thought Saeko she didn't quite get the details exactly right.

"Well, I guess with you two together…I guess you can go along without me" Minako chuckled

"Why? where are you going?" Ami asked, she hadn't thought about what would happen if her mother had shown up, but then again, today seemed to be a day where she had missed minor details.

"Well…you two…I mean"

Minako was looking for a polite way of saying it, and Ami knew it. Saeko however helped ease the situation and put everyone's concern to rest.

"Well you don't have to go home now do you?" Saeko offered "Why don't you tag along with us?"

"Are you sure?"

"Please, I rarely get to see my daughter's friends as it is"

With that invitation, the three girls nodded in agreement and walked off towards their destination.

* * *

Already inside and several floors up from where entrance was, two other senshi were already making use of the complex. But their reasons for being here was really different from the one that Ami and Minako were coming for. With their trip to Hokkaido less than a week away, the purchase of new winter wear had become the priority for one, and the worry of another.

"I can't believe you haven't even bought your ski gear yet" the smaller of the two pouted "you know you could've gotten it when I was getting mine"

"Yeah, but I still like to pick our my own things" the taller of the two replied "Michiru still thinks I can't pick out my own clothes"

"You sound like a boy sometimes, you know that right?"

"That's the whole idea"

Hotaru giggled, they were two of a kind in the weirdest couple she knew in her limited social circle, but none the less understandable. Despite their interaction and close relationship, they still had their foils and arguments sometimes. One of those arguments at the moment was currently being voiced, having booked for the vacation in October, Haruka hadn't even bought so much as a snow glove — let alone skis, weather gear, boots, a bag — citing being quite busy in the shop the last few weeks as a valid excuse. Her university grade mechanic's apprenticeship didn't allow her the time she wanted off for this sort of errand, though it did perplexingly provide plenty of time to drive around town and tour the country on weekends.

But eventually Haruka knew she had to get around to the task of buying her gear. This vacation after all had been Michiru's planning and with the endorsement of Setsuna, there was really no way that they could get out of it, short of an actual attack on the senshi, and that wasn't something to pray for. It was not like they could wait around for the next fight forever, there had been a good 18 months since Galaxia and this winter holiday after all was deserved time off. After all, waiting for disaster was boring, and the absence of activity was a relief, despite the superstitious thinking to the contrary. Everyone had adopted the fear about when the next enemy was about to attack, but eventually waiting for the enemy became boring, and this ski-trip was designed to at least take advantage of the free time.

"We'll Hotaru, when you grow up, your going to realize that sometimes its best to pick out your own clothing" Haruka explained "sometimes you cant trust anyone when it comes to you're your style"

"I have no problem with what I got…its cute" Hotaru replied

"As I said…when you grow up" Haruka chuckled

* * *

For Ami, the night had been one really new experience, with Minako tagging along, the night had been on fun time out shopping. Despite their initial awkwardness, Minako felt less like a third wheel by the time they had gone to the second store, thanks in part to her mother who could get almost anyone to open up easily enough, which in turn was thanks in part to her bedside manner that had taught her how. While Ami did feel a little displeasure for having her time with her mother shared with her friend, the compromise soon paid dividends when Minako continued to provide humor appropriate for the moment. In fashion stores, this humor was laced further by her attire recommendations for Ami, which lead to Saeko having a good laugh and even getting a few ideas what her daughter would look good in.

For Minako, the night had been one unique experience. Initially feeling out of place and awkward about the whole night, Saeko eventually helped ease her discomfort by asking her advice on clothes for Ami, which had the desired effect of letting Minako feel better about her tag-along status. The rest of the evening after that time was just as fun, having never really done something similar with her mother except when she was too young to understand it, it was a learning experience. There were differences of course, where as Minako's mother tended to focus on the beauty parlor and the boutiques, Ami and her mother found more interest in like visiting bookstores and electronic stores. Despite how often Minako was harassed for converting electronic devices — like her stereo— she quickly learnt that she was nothing compared to the more tech savvy pair, the senior Mizuno interested in CD players she could take to the office and the junior Mizuno really interested in a new laptops and software she wanted to use on it.

For Saeko, the night had been just fun. It was a break from weeks of tense scheduling and the general mood of her line of work offered a contrast to everything going on at the moment. It also gave Saeko the chance to learn a couple of new things that were either forgotten or entirely new to her. The problem with not seeing her own daughter all the time was the discrepancies in her development. Up until the second year in middle school, Ami had been a quiet, shy and overall reserved person, but nowadays — for reasons still unknown to Saeko — she was a definitely changed person since then, which often made her wonder how that had happened. Had it been maturity, or had it been from influence? She was no psychologist; but Saeko could tell that at least some of it was attributed to the impact Minako had on her daughter, just as Ami had on improving her friend's grades as was to learn.

While walking around the stores, Ami had related the results of her exams and while there was no doubt that she was brilliant, but it was her friend's immediately praise in tutoring her to a laudable result that had surprised the senior Mizuno. Saeko didn't know what to make of that, except it reinforced an idea that maybe Ami should consider becoming a teacher instead. Apart from that minor piece of consideration, Saeko's other observations were of Minako herself.

"Hey Ami, look!" Minako pointed towards a glass display. Minako divert from their original path to another store and stopped to see into the front windows of a toy store.

'Forever a child' Saeko thought. It seemed was the best description of her personality, not that it was in any way a problem. She found Minako a fairly interesting person in her brief time with her so far and while she had some strange eccentricities and was nowhere near as smart as Ami, Minako Aino was by far the most cheerful person she had encountered in awhile. Saeko, like Ami, turned their attention to the store which had several displays behind its windows. The first window was where the Pokemon toys and merchandise were and in the second window was Nintendo and Sega games, but the one that the Minako had obvious interest in was a range of 'Sailor Stars' action figures in the third window.

"It's the new ones! I've been waiting for ages to see these come out!"

In one of the odd commercial spin-off applications of first Sailor V, and now Sailor Moon and the other senshi, the sailor stars displayed in the store window were the third generation of action figures that were suppose to — with some remarkably accuracy — portray the entire Sailor Senshi line. Originally conceived by Konami's toy division, the sailor star series was one of the few remaining toy lines still around not completely submerged by the pokemon craze. While they didn't sell as much as before, a hardcore following of original fans, a university aged otaku community and little girls in love with the idea of a real life magical girl kept the franchise alive.

The portrayal of the senshi was a hit or miss affair however, with the first and second editions had been progressive refinements on interpretations of the battles fought, with the latest generation getting most of the important facts right. They were all present in the display, with Sailor Moon, Sailor 'Moon junior' and the subtly inaccurate tuxedo mask as 'Prince Moon' taking the center stage. And flanking either side from left to right; Saturn, Mars, Uranus, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Neptune and Pluto. While their appearances were practically true to the actual senshi, that was were the similarities ended.

Luna and Artemis and 'Apollo' were respectively a midnight black, snow white and chrome silver Cerberus. Further, as a consequence of sailors' Moon, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto having something like a weapon, the other senshi were given weapons to both justify the purchase of the newest generation of figurines, and to fulfill some popcorn logic that some of the fans had debated about. As a result, Venus also was given a futuristic looking handgun that clipped to her belt, mars was given a golden archer's bow and a couple of arrows with both iron and flame tips, Jupiter was given strange looking man-portable anti-tank rifle that — according to the blurb — included a lighting capacitor that shot 'lighting shells', and in one of the weird examples of fiction beating reality, Neptune's mirror was replaced with a trident.

"You're a fan of sailor moon?" Saeko asked curiously,

"Yeah!" Minako replied, still gazing at her latest toy incarnation "I've been a fan ever since Sailor V" which Minako was vaguely disappointed to see was no longer being made, the compromise however came in the form of Sailor Venus now coming with Sailor V's outfit as an accessory.

"That was a really a thing back in the day" Saeko chuckled, "the kids we had in hospital always talked about them…especially those who claimed they saw the real Senshi in action"

"I'm sure they did too" Minako chuckled, "I mean they must've been, right?"

Only because of the media attention did Saeko know that this was actually true, unlike Santa or the Easter bunny from western culture, the senshi were real, the incidents that occurred were real — that they were portrayed as childhood heroines was a consequence of a overtly commercial enterprise — and she knew how real they were because the police certainly took it seriously. Every time a patient brought in from a serious attack that required medical care, a detective questioned that person. A lot of the details of the senshi came from these interviews, which were relayed back into public consumption and eventually aided in making merchandise like these figurines becoming very accurate to the real deal.

"Hey Ami look" Minako pointed at mercury "your favorite one comes with a sword now"

At the same time, Ami and Saeko looked down at the figurine pointed out by Minako. In this latest incarnation, Ami could've sworn that this Mercury virtually identical to the real one, despite the added fiction that in the form of a European rapier sword that looked like it was made of ice. Saeko carefully glimpsed at the figurine and then turned to look at Ami. Her first impression of the toy's resemblance to her daughter disappeared in a heartbeat when she saw the look on Ami's face. Her look was not one of excitement, boredom or even displeasure, rather of distant but pale surprise.

"I didn't know you liked Sailor moon"

"I did…a little bit…" Ami replied, already guarded with her words. Upon first seeing them, she had at once hidden her embarrassment at seeing her likeness in a toy, but to any an outside observer, she appeared pale when Minako pointed out her secret alter-ego to her mother. From what Saeko could tell, Ami had never expressed interest in the Senshi fad as it was, ever. That as a child she was denied a lot of toys and fads because of their tight budget had instituted a waning discipline against luxuries was reason for her soft denial now.

"...and mercury was your favorite?" Saeko surprised at learning this, if Saeko had to pick a favorite, as so many children had asked her, in reply she often answered that she was a fan of Mercury.

Ami only nodded, committing herself to admit at least a false truth, which only confused Saeko. To her, Ami, she admitted to liking the character, but saying so in a way that made it sound like she didn't? It felt like a lie, was she really a fan of sailor moon or was it just denial, or was she simply mistaken?

Minako's brief lapse from realizing what she had dragged Ami into finally caught up to her consciousness and when she saw it in Ami's eyes that she really didn't know how to talk about this topic, Minako realized at how awkward the situation was and acted accordingly.

"Well Venus will always be my favorite" Minako spoke up "Me, Usagi, Rei and Makoto...we all were into it during middle school"

It was a push to bring the attention away from Ami, and it worked. Saeko took in the relevance of what was said by Minako and figured it out a plausible explanation that involved Ami showing interest because her friends followed it, which wasn't a bad thing of course, but it at least made a lot more sense than Ami's appearance of a straight denial.

"Well, I guess we should be going if we want to get the rest of the shopping done" Saeko decided, somewhat sounding like a mother directing two five year olds away from the windows.

While she was surprised by the manner in which Ami reacted to the toys and Minako's fascination, her doctor's logical mind didn't try to think too much into it and assumed simply that the two were remising in their own ways. She would've been surprised to learn however that Minako was already making plans to come back later and collect them all, as she did with the previous edition. Despite what she said, Minako never stopped being fascinated by the fictional adaption of her alter-ego. What would have further surprised Saeko however, was her daughter actually wished she could have bought one for herself, but with both the enforced guilt in buying something she was far too old to enjoy and the further fear that came along with such an object cancelled the temptation out.

While never really discussed among members of the senshi, Ami's sudden anxiety when confronted with her mother's reaction to her alter-ego was something paramount among the fears that they all faced. Minako didn't quite pick up on the signals as fast anymore since she had long since assumed her mother would never learn her identity. But when she saw the look, Minako knew she had gone too far. Fortunately, Ami's mother didn't go too far into prosecuting the miniature anxiety attack that Ami had and moved on. Of all the things going well, this was really the stupidest thing she could've done tonight. That she wasn't aware how important this conversation would play in the next five minutes was a hindsight that she would never really appreciate.

* * *

Achen wasn't especially skilled in a lot of areas, 'and maybe…' he concluded 'that was why he had been picked for this mission'.

He had neither the poetic like logic and diplomatic skills of Azrael or the intensive ruthless command and raw brutality that Denisa had grown up with. He was loyal however to the men he commanded, and to the men that commanded him…such as the general, who If all according to plan, would take down a senshi, and in doing so reunite the shattered factions of the kingdom and bring to bear a force that would finish what him and his platoon of auto-troops started tonight. That wasn't to say he planned on dying, he orders didn't say so. His orders were to take his platoon into the selected area and to probe until a senshi shows up. Fight them, injury them if he could, and once his forces of automation troops were destroyed, he would recover the floating orb he was taking with him and retreat.

The process took a lot of power but in an instant, at least half a dozen orbs of light appeared in the void and above the third floor concourse. Dropping out of each of the portals was one of his Auto-troops, which included four seven foot high, black semi-organic robots with a rifle-cannon built into one arm. Their design was simple, elegant, fearsome, and they were amongst almost a dozen had just dropped into a busy shopping centre on Friday night.

* * *

Ami, Minako and Saeko were standing in an elevator waiting to head down the second floor to get to an antique shop that Saeko planned to visit. There Saeko was sure, she could find something for her own mother. They could've walked, but Minako cited it would've been quicker to take the lift instead. While waiting for the doors to open again, Saeko looked over again to her daughter, knowing Ami was bothered with what happened before. What could've made her so uncomfortable so quickly? Well the dolls of course, but as to why was the reason seemed to be of concern, why was she feeling guilty because of that?

Saeko however didn't get to even start to speak her sentence before the elevator cart started to shake violently. Outside it didn't take long for explosion to rock the gears and the resulting vibrations let the cable holding up the car slip to the tune of an entire floor before the emergency braking system caught the cable and brought the falling cart to a sudden, but non-fatal stop. The vibrations had taken a short time to settle down, so much that by the time Ami regained her hearing from the initial shockwave, the shaking had ceased. Inside, the three had momentary been rocked about before feeling roughly a second or more of weightlessness before finally falling hard onto the floor, Minako having been the most awkward position prior to explosion, had fallen back and almost smacked her head against the metal rail that lined the elevator car interior. For Ami and her mother, they simply fell and landed on their behinds after their feet only cushioned their fall for a second.

For half a minute, they had all technically passed out before they came too and started to get their bearings. One thing that seemed to come as a surprise was that they had survived a fall in an elevator. What they were not yet aware of was how the emergency break had caught the cable and how it had stopped the elevator car from falling from where they were to the basement, which would have certainly been fatal. Before they had come to their sudden jolting stop however, the lights flashed out and the impact of their stop had broken the door ajar open; leaving them in a dark closet-sized space with only the lights outside making it through the almost closed door.

Minako was the first to come about and thus the first to speak and first to cough from the dust that liberated itself from the explosion

"Ami! You alright?" she got no reply "Ami!"

"Yeah…I'm alright" Ami shook her head as she finally came around, the first possible question Ami asked herself was the obvious "what was that?"

Saeko was the last to recover consciousness and the last to get the ringing out of her ear, when she could finally hear herself breathe, her first enquiry was also obvious "Ami! Minako!"

"We're here" both replied at nearly the same time, Ami continued on "you alright mom?"

"I'm alright" Saeko replied before asking the next important question "are you two hurt?"

"I'm aright" Minako replied as she finally righted herself.

"I'm fine" Ami replied.

For the next few seconds, nobody knew what to do, but then the two teenager's instincts switched on and Ami and Minako took her first look around. Darkness, but a little red light told them that the CCTV was still operating. Minako, shifted over and looked out the tiny peep hole created to see what it was that had caused it. While she didn't know what transpired the door to open, but it didn't aid in helping her see outside all that well anyway.

"What's going on Minako?" Ami asked, sitting down properly and trying to find her mother in the dark "Was that an earthquake?"

"I can't see much…wait… people are running" Minako flinched for a split second when she saw something else, but before the thought of what she saw completed by itself, another smaller explosion rocked the elevator car again. Minako dropped to the ground covering her head and waited for the lift to give way and drop. Fortunately this time, it didn't and the rocking stopped in short order but it didnt stop Ami's mother — who hadn't quite recovered from the first explosion — falling backwards into the lap of her daughter, while Ami herself fell over to her side and hit her head against Minako's bag. The bag saved her from a head injury, but it did give Atermis a body blow he didn't deserve, his resulting shriek was one that nobody failed to notice.

"What was that?" Saeko asked, now quite disoriented, and now convinced that this was no earthquake.

"What do you mean?" Minako asked in a tone as if she was still referring to the explosion.

"I heard a cat"

Both teenagers didn't know how to respond to that except denying it now would be impossible. But beyond that simple problem, both Ami and Minako started to take in the situation presented to them and quickly concluded this was no accident. Minako was almost certain given what she saw before the second explosion and at that very moment, in a darkened out elevator car with a fellow senshi and a non-combatant, her mind switched from peacetime mode high school student Minako Aino to combat mode Sailor Senshi Venus.

"I think that's Artemis…" Minako started, coming clean now to try buy time "he's my cat"

Without prompting, Ami unzipped the bag and a creature's head popped out, making a innocent cat noise.

"You brought your cat along?" Saeko was surprised, "and he's been in there the whole time?"

"Yes" Minako admitted "…and yes, he likes to travel with me a lot"

"You know you can't do that to animals…" Saeko almost reprimanded "and why is he with you in a shopping centre?"

Neither Ami nor Minako could explain it, and they offered no answer as a result. On hearing no excuse Ami's mother decided to drop it while her mind racked in wonder at what to do next instead. Her predicament was bad, but she wouldn't ever appreciate the predicament that both teenagers were now starting to realize they were in. The two senshi locked eyes with each other while Minako relayed without voice — but through her eyes — to Ami that just before they dropped again, she sighted a monster. Without even having to convey through a muscle movement, both knew at once there was an additional problem. Ami's mother was the problem, the CCTV camera still operating, was also the problem. Upon recognizing that Ami understood what the problem was, Minako started to think about the situation again.

Outside there was an attack underway, who? Reason? Objective? All of that was unknown and she couldn't find out, because of the further two problems inside the lift. For once, Minako wished she already had guidance on this sort of situation. Her only two sources for it at the moment was Artemis and Ami, but they right now couldn't even move a muscle let alone advise her on what to do and divine providence in the form of hindsight which was never an option. Without anything to do, Artemis slid out of the bag he had been hiding in and after a few steps, leaped to his master's lap. Artemis's body acted like a cat, but his eyes acted as an advisor, and he didn't know what to do.

* * *

Both Haruka and Hotaru were almost done with their shopping when the first explosion went off. To their good fortune they hadn't been too close to it and what flying debris that did fly this far only was small enough to land softly on the ground. But after their small fortune receded into recent memory, the two off them got off the ground they had so recently jumped down upon and looked for somewhere to hide.

"Of all the…" Haruka yelled. She had briefly wondered if this was really happening, but that thought had come to a quick conclusion when she sighted her first auto-troop. It had appeared from around the corner, looking directly at her now and before Haruka could work out what the long barrel attached to the arm did, the auto-troop demonstrated again. The round flew right past the corner she was hiding behind and into the bench and shrub box they had dived by moments before.

"That was too close" Hatoru commented, lined back up against the wall, "Haruka, I think its time for Sailor Uranus and Saturn"

"I hear that…" Haruka replied, she was already checking her surroundings. As always, upon seeing danger, everyone had run for the stairwells and the pocket hallways like she had run into, except hers was backed by locked doors. Haruka had almost been worried about a camera sighted on them but the problem corrected soon itself by another rocking blast by their enemy. Haruka smirked at her luck, with the camera pointing directly at them destroyed — along with half the ceiling that housed it — her concerns were laid to rest.

"Uranus Crystal Power!"

"Saturn Crystal Power!"

In an instant, the pocket hallway glowed while light enveloped the civilians which after a moment dissipated, leaving two senshi in their place.

"Saturn, call for help, I don't think this is a simple monster we're dealing with"

"Right" Saturn whipping out her communicator "Lets hope someone is close by…"

* * *

Looking in the dark, Saeko shifted her gaze away from the cat from that had come out of the bag, back to her daughter sitting on the opposite wall to Minako. Through the slit of light, Ami looked tense, but not frightened. At once Saeko noticed something was not right, she could tell that Ami was thinking of something else, thinking of the situation, but not of her own safely. Saeko noticed her eyes transfixed on Minako and her once hidden cat. Something wasn't right, the tense moods she could now feel, emulating from both of them, it was not fear, it was concern.

But before Saeko was at breaking point to ask why, the divine providence Minako had asked for came. Not quite what she was expecting, but its suddenness was a relief that, for good or worse; it was now too late to turn back and when it was all done and said later, she could at least lay claim that it was not her fault. In both her and Ami's bag, a ringing tone came which at once Saeko snapped out of her glare to ask the obvious question.

"What is that noise?"


	4. Chapter 3: The Eleventh Test

**Chapter 3: The Eleventh Test**

Neither answered, because neither had a reasonable explanation.

"Girls?" Saeko asked again.

Sitting there with the same expression as the others, Artemis wondered what he should do. He had no idea, which was fine since he no idea how to tell Minako that he had no idea, but even he knew the beeping noise of their communicators was a point of no return for all of them. He had thought of what the other senshi might do in a similar situation, he had heard at how Usagi and even Ami and Minako had been in similar problems before, but they all had the past fortune of being able to accomplish something without revieling their identities to anyone. With really no choice – now that the communicators had started to beep – Artemis tried to think of the consequences for this time. Ami's mother was also the mother of Sailor Mercury, who less than ten minutes ago expressed interest in the senshi. Artemis didn't know if this was really a qualification factor in making his final choice, but ultimately, there was really nothing better than that reason alone to make his mind up.

With his choice made, a new voice spoke, "Looks like we have no choice…Let me handle other problem first"

Before Saeko could figure out that the cat had conversed like a human, it had jumped out of Minako's arms and walked out of view of the camera like a normal cat, before proceeding to jump onto the back wall, clawing his way up and with one decisive swipe, disconnected the power and killed the camera. When he was done, he fell back and landed on his feet.

"Now Venus" Artemis ordered.

"…did the cat just…" Saeko spoke. Hardly able to think of the words for it, she looked up to Ami, wondering for a moment if the past 15 seconds of her life were just illusionary.

"…talk? Yes" Ami replied, but before Seako could even attempt to work out what to say, Minako picked out her communicator in an instant and pressed the receive button.

"Venus here"

"It's Saturn" Hatoru's tiny voice could be heard "There is a platoon of monsters at the Juban super centre! I'm here with Uranus, we need backup"

"Mercury and I are stuck in a lift in the building, we'll meet up with you in a moment" Minako said as calmly as she could, for the moment ignoring an awestruck and confused middle aged woman just inches away from her.

From here on out, no number of excuses could possibly explain what was going on and their only real rational was that there was at least something more important outside to deal with now. Minako felt in her pocket for her henshin stick, which – even after so long a time since she had to use it – she had always kept no further than a foot's length away matter location or the time.

"Got yours?" Minako looked back up at Ami who nodded and felt her pocket for, then retrieved, her henshin stick. Like Minako, she had the same sentiment.

"Wait? What's going on?" Saeko asked. She was getting tired of no answers and starting to lose control of her rationally processed thoughts, but when she saw the henshin sticks, that thought process that she had been tying to control entered a new phase. Saeko's voice grew less stable and with a pinch of anger at the end – when her rationally was momentarily lost – she calmly asked "Ami …Minako…what in the world… who are you two?"

Minako would probably, under better circumstances, might've tried to frame her response better, but time was against them "What do you think we are?"

For a moment, Saeko's irrationally was wondering if the girl she was really looking at was her daughter, but then her rationality returned and she started to process the question that Minako had asked her. In looking for an answer, Saeko's memory had started to rewind until she came upon a situation of less than ten minutes ago, which all at once prompted only one word. For her own question, Saeko looked square into the eyes of her – was it really her daughter? – and spoke one simple word.

"Senshi?"

Without speaking, Ami simply nodded, confirming for Saeko a revelation that far exceeded even the time she learnt she was pregnant with her daughter. Nothing in the world could have prepared her for this and never again in her lifetime would she feel shame, anger, concern, fear, sadness and joy all in the same space of time. Minako could see it would take time to process, but they had to move.

"I'm sorry Dr. Mizuno" Minako stood and took command "But there really isn't any better way we can tell you…I, Minako Aino am a Sailor Senshi, and so is your daughter…but right now…both of us need to head out there right now and stop whatever caused that explosion"

A simple nod came from her body, which was paralyzed with surprise, not from the fall from before, but Saeko realization that she was sure as hell not imagining, dreaming or hallucinating this. Minako had to let go – they would return to this soon enough – and so she reached down hand extended to pick up Ami, as so the both of them could hold their miniature wands as high as the elevator car allowed.

"Venus Star Power!"

"Mercury Star Power!"

Sitting from a distance less than a meter away, Ami's mother witnessed as her only daughter turned into something that only her wildest unimagined thoughts could have dreamed. In a matter of seconds, the two high school girls had disappeared and in their place, two towering senshi stood over her. The one that she thought – she corrected herself, was – her daughter was in the blue stylized Fuku, Tiara and a line of blue ear buds extended her hand, she took it. In a moment, she was eye to eye with her.

"I'll explain later" Mercury said, to which her mother simply nodded.

"Lets go" Venus patting her fellow senshi on the shoulder, then she turned down to the floor where cat guardian had watched the revelation "Artemis, stay behind and guard Mercury's mother, take her communicator and coordinate with any other senshi coming to us"

"Roger"

With a turning glance, Ami's face changed away from the ashamed emotion of admitting a hidden lie, to the professional face she needed now. Venus and Mercury both took a firm grip on each door and in one pull, they were free. The senshi didn't take another moment to look back, simply hopping over the rubble fallen and started to run to the action. Leaving behind a mother with no words to describe what she had just seen, being guarded by a cat that clearly to her was no ordinary animal.

* * *

Uranus was stating to realize that these were not the usual pack of drones that their enemies sent. Sure she had fought with monsters before, but none even came close to this. The black robot was sure as hell one tough enemy, it had taken a full blast of her signature attack and still was standing, armor cracked, but that gun was still working just fine. Uranus ducked behind another shrubbery where Saturn was now hiding.

"Well?"

"Mercury and Venus are in the building somewhere, Mars, Jupiter and Moon are still twenty minutes away…"

Uranus cursed loudly before shouting "We don't have 20 minutes!"

Her loud shouting gave attention to the auto-troop which isolated the noise, fixed its arm on the target and fired another round. Sensing too late the mistake she made and knowing it, both Senshi jumped clear before the box of shrubbery was obliterated like the other three already destroyed. Propelled with more momentum thanks in part to the explosion, Uranus rolled behind another corner and smacked into a photo booth. She had almost lost her jewel encrusted scarab over the side of the concourse balcony, but instead it was firmed stabbed home into the photo booth display, separating two fictional lovers in the picture with her weapon.

Saturn was knocked into the opposite direction, avoided a pole that she could've smacked into, instead going through the window of a dress shop where the hiding patrons and staff were shocked to see their surprise visitor enter like she did. Cuts and bruises and frightened non-combatants aside; Saturn was fine and in a few seconds she came to, stood and picked up her Glaive to re-enter the fight. Hiding behind the wall at the entrance, she crouched down and looked across to where Uranus landed. After getting an okay nod from her, Saturn started a dash across the concourse bridge and slid the rest till she was behind the corner.

"Got a plan?" Saturn asked

"Don't know, can you run back to the other side again?"

"Why?" Saturn yelped, both surprised and annoyed.

"We need to attack this thing at the same time. He's slow at aiming that stupid gun" Uranus explained "we'll try from multiple angles"

"Don't think that'll work" Saturn said pointing at a glass wall. In the reflection, they could see down the length of the hallway where a second one of those robots had shown up. Uranus swore, but this time not loudly. Uranus thought for a moment and then asked another question.

"How good are you at jumping?"

"Pretty good"

"Then I got an idea, but we're just going to have to rush them first" Uranus said getting off the floor "you ready?"

Saturn nodded, quietly displeased with the rushing part of the plan but none the less, she clasped her pole-arm weapon tighter and stood up from her crouch ready to follow through.

"Lets go!"

In an instant, both senshi emerged from the corner and started a straight dash towards the enemy. Both auto-troops saw their target and started to volley rounds at the incoming threat while the two senshi saw the bullets coming and concentrated. It was a one in a million to get it right, but a one in a googolplex to get them all and Uranus was assuming she was right about her guess, but in a split second she found out she was right when she and Saturn respectively managed to used their glaive and sword to bat off the incoming shells. Their progress was slow but it was working on closing the gap, and just where she planned, Uranus jumped to the left, pulling down Saturn with her and crashed through the doors that they had transformed in front of before.

With only moments before their cover was blown, Uranus motioned with her hands to a pole, and then crouched down ready to give her counterpart a boost. Saturn nodded understanding and then with a few steps to line up, she then ran a short distance and was then aided into the air by Uranus with a hand-boost. Now in the air, Saturn somersaulted using her pole-arm as balance before she landed on her target and – with the spring motion from cushioning her legs– catapulted herself again off a pole mounted camera dome. Aligned as planned for the attack, Saturn drove home her Glaive into the back of the neck on the first auto-troop before her forward momentum pulled the sharp blade out of the already mortally wounded monster. With the monument already working for her Saturn twisted the Glaive in her hand like a baton and sheered clean off the Right arm of the second auto-troop.

The first lurched forward, its arms flailing into the air to try catch whatever had stabbed it before the veins in the back of the brain exploded and the monster fell forward to a hard and sudden drop. The second was not wounded mortally but had lost its offensive capability just as hoped. Just as Saturn was clear of the monster robot, Uranus let loose.

"World Shaking!"

The blast finished the job that the first hadn't been able to accomplish by cracking the armor and destroying the monster. When the dust settled, all was left was the scattered burning remains of both auto-troops. Uranus and Saturn walked up to the corpses, Saturn dropping down from the bar she had grabbed onto to slow down and let her drop to the floor.

"Those two were tough" Uranus spoke first, noting at once how they burned when they died "Saturn, you alright?"

"Yeah" Saturn rested the Glaive in her hands and inspecting her handiwork "We should get to the others"

As to punctuate that, they heard a small explosion in the direction of the food court.

"Right"

The two ignored the remains and charged towards the source of the noise.

* * *

Two floors down, and almost 100 meters away, Venus and Mercury were finding what Uranus and Saturn had just learnt about their enemy. After trying to first locate their counterpart senshi, they had run into the main element of the attacking force and had become pinned down behind a wall that enclosed an indoor garden display. While not in danger of falling off into a void like the other two had, both of them had yet to get on the score board.

"Well, what's the count?" Venus asked her counterpart

"8 small ones, 2 big ones" Mercury answer as quickly thought of a smarter plan than their previous failed attempt to get close.

The difference in size was noted by the appearance of a somewhat smaller auto-troop, a foot shorter and a lighter grey, they didn't wield the impressive gun that the big black ones did, that gave little consolation to both senshi could didn't know what to do. Typically when they had a typical problem, it was a single monstrosity that they outnumbered 1:2-8. But this was different, they were fighting a horde of monster sized robots and the odds were in reverse, even with Saturn and Uranus somewhere nearby they were at least 3:1, odds the senshi never usually encountered.

"Well, got any smart plans on taking out those guns?" Venus asked, occasionally glancing to see how soon they would have to fall back to another point. She didn't know where that was, just that they couldn't wait very long to decide where to go.

"I don't know, we need the others for a plan"

Knowing what she meant, Venus picked up her communicator, taped the symbol for Saturn and made her message as simple to understand as possible.

"Where are you?"

Unlike Uranus's early learning curve, Venus had yet to learn about controlling her voice. Both heavy auto-troops sighted aim at the centre of the wall on the far end of the garden box and let loose. Neither of them saw it, but someone else did. Jumping down from the third floor, Uranus and Saturn impacted the ground, using the hard cushioning strain on their legs to be pushed back and catapulted them sideways, while doing so grabbing onto the trapped senshi and jumping clear. Uranus caught Venus and Saturn caught Mercury a split second before the impact of the rounds. Like before, the explosion propelled them further then a mere jump would have. Saturn's luck persisted again ,but instead of landing in a dress store again, she landed in side corridor where the worse damage inflicted was upon a pair of garbage cans and a telephone booth which her Glaive had impaled. That Saturn at all managed to move a marginally larger mass of Mercury was testimony to her strength when called upon, but didn't stop the Senshi from banging her head against a garbage bin.

On the other side of the corridor, Venus and Uranus ate glass this time and crashed into a cake store window, but unlike Saturn's previous arrival through window, Uranus had the mind to force the scarab sword through first, smashing the window before either senshi came in. They landed inside and crashed to the ground while the sword still in mid air, cut a few cakes along the way before settling into the steel countertop. The staff that had been watching like in the dress shop were still hiding the counter and after they felt it was safe, all slowly lifted their heads to see the two senshi lying on the floor prone. A second or two late, Uranus came about.

"Hey, you alive?"

Venus took another second but replied "Yeah…didn't expect that…thanks"

The two of them got up and looked around and back at where Saturn and Mercury had landed. Uranus could see how Saturn had landed and could only think of one thing to describe it.

"She is not having a good night…" Uranus commented as she pulled her sword from countertop.

* * *

Achen witnessed the assault from the other end of the battlefield. He had hoped a certain kill, but even then, the shots might not have done the trick anyway and seeing those two senshi rescued like that only reinforced the belief they were much better then he had expected. At seeing the arrival of those two, he easily surmised the fate of the two heavy auto-troops that landed on the top floor and concluded that his remaining forces were what he could see, which had done impressively well so far. They had fought off the local security force quite effectively before the sudden appearance of the senshi, and their confused arrival from a side corridor only opened them to a surprise attack.

But now there were four senshi, and if those two knew how to fight the heavy auto-troops, they stood a chance in defeating him. Despite this news, his priorities had changed, without admitting it to himself, he felt that he could actually kill a senshi now and one-up those two senior colonels. Not only would it prove his abilities were noteworthy, but it would really secure his place in any movement on the winning side of the internal conflicts in the kingdom.

"Canyon battleground" he spoke to himself, with no way to move back or forward and limited hiding spaces, he might just pull it off.

* * *

"Where were you two? Mercury asked

"We had to take care of two of them" the other senshi replied "I didn't know the main group was here"

"Yeah well…" Mercury looked across the distance to the cake store where Venus gave distant, but visible thumbs up to her "Got any plans on how to hit those cannon-bots?"

"Well if Uranus and I can close enough sure, but we'll really need your help…"

Ami thought about it and at once her mind entered the mode that she was best suited for. Looking back at where Venus and Uranus was, her idea then it hit her when she realized that – to their fortunate luck – that they had actually played this scenario through a few times. It wasn't something that had managed to do yet in combat, but they certainly had trained for it. Mercury asked for Saturn's communicator and hit it for both Venus and Uranus.

"I think we can do this, but its going to mean we need to attack in the right order" Mercury proposed and started to explain what her idea was.

Despite their performance tonight so far, the senshi had at least been ready to some degree for a fight. While ideally their fights previous had worked out just fine, the entire campaign with their last enemy had pointed out a very fundamental problem with them, they didn't know how to fight. They knew how to attack with magic, but that wasn't enough to defeat and even when they had numerical advantage, their discipline in working together as a team had been poorly executed, egos and personalities aside, coordination was non-existent. It had cost them dearly and the results had almost defeated the senshi for good. When they reunited in the aftermath, it was agreed that something needed to be done.

For the last eighteen months, all the senshi had at some point worked on refining their teamwork and combat abilities. To one end, Mars and Jupiter and all of the outer senshi had practiced their martial arts or a close quarters combat discipline such as pole arms and kendo. On the other end, Mercury, Venus and Moon – unable to learn so freely because of restraints to their identity – had learnt focused their learning on refining their attacks and learning, second hand, some basic fighting skills. Each senshi had specialties as a result and in the case of Mercury, her best summarized skills where in order; tactical planning, creating cover distractions in the form of mist clouds, and providing ranged support for other attacks.

Venus and Uranus where wary of the plan, and its vague similarity to the scenario that Mercury referred to. Leave it to the genius to remember something so trivial, yet important keynote of their training.

"Alright, my legs are pretty tired of jumping like this, but I think I can do it" Uranus replied agreeing "when you're ready"

"Right" Mercury replied and then turned to her counterpart "Saturn. you heard?"

"I'm ready" Saturn replied, already bracing herself for another high-wire stunt.

Mercury peered around the corner and saw that their targets, the two cannon-armed robots were where they should be, but also about to fire.

"Brace!" Mercury shouted.

The senshi jumped back to cover Saturn just as the gun fired and blasted the corner she had been leaning up against into dust, the same was said for the other side where the cover Venus and Uranus were hiding behind had been blown outwards, fortunately they had divided backwards before impact. For the second time, glass shattered and further damage was inflicted on the business that really didn't deserve this sort of punishment. When both sides came about, they noticed how the dust lingered in the air and how it covered them for their moment to start their counterattack. Not taking the time to count on their luck, Mercury and Venus ran out about a meter and performed the first act of their attack.

"Shabon Spray!"

In an instant a foamy cold mist poured created itself from first the air around her and then from the automatic fire extinguisher sprinklers on the arches under the second floor's concourse balcony. It result wasn't a lot of mist, the space was just too big to engulf with so little time, but the desired result occurred, the mist came at the auto-troops like a wave and hovered like a fog, going no higher than 12 feet, but it blinded even the heavy auto-troops. When they confirmed that their enemy was in for a state of confusion, Ami and Venus repeated the process Uranus did for Saturn, and in moments, both outer senshi were catapulted skywards again. Adjusting their attack angle by somersaulting, when the saw their targets, Saturn and Uranus repeated their winning move on the first two heavy auto-troops and thrust their weapons forward in a falling charge from above.

Saturn – whose weapon was the longer of the two – hit first, the glaive penetrated the right shoulder and cut deep into the torso, before her boots delivering a fatal double flying kick to the mask that the auto-troops used. In an instant the gun was no longer attached and the mind of the monster damaged beyond use. Uranus, who had the short weapon, and was less suited for stabbing attacks brought her weapon up for a strike, cutting right to left. The actual strike dismembered the auto-troop from the top of the right shoulder to the bottom of the left, beheading it from the gun. At the same time both Senshi had hit their primary targets, Mercury and Venus were preparing the the second or third act of their attack.

"Crescent…" Venus kept her words guarded as she awaited the two

"Shine …" Ami calmly announced eyes closed bringing her arms to her chest…concentrating her magic for the desired effect as behind her the swirls started to absorb the mist and form watery portals which in turn formed solid ice arrows.

Among the mist, Uranus leapt backwards off the already disintegrating chest of the auto-troop and joined Saturn in the air once more see from the air their handiwork, but as she knew, cutting didn't just do it

"World…" Uranus breathed as she reached for the heavens to grasp her attack's full power, then shouted "….Shaking!"

On the ground, Venus and Mercury let loose their attacks

"…Beam barrage!" Shouting as she pointed her finger into the misty unknown

"…Aqua Illusion!" Shouting as her hands pointed forward.

At once the earthly beam from Uranus blasted into the mist to hit its two targets, while a shower of lasers and an unguided barrage of crystallized frozen spears darted across at their own targets. The auto troops had been blinded and couldn't see the incoming attack, and many never saw much else afterwards. The beam shots and ice spears in most cases made their mark and penetrated armor, limbs and in some cases shredding apart the limbs and torsos from repeated hits. As this force covered by fog was slaughtered, the earthy beam above was focused on the two heavy-troops, finishing them off in a blinding impact of pure energy.

When the fog cleared, Achen saw what the Senshi's attack had beckoned, in the matter of a minute, the odds to victory had been wiped out in a matter of the metaphor that described it best; destructive. This was no longer a battle winnable, not even close, of the four heavy and eight light auto-troops, his platoon had only two light auto-troops in functional order, which soon would be the least of his problems.

"You there!" One of the two senshi standing on the ground floor boomed as loudly as she could shout "Your disruption of evening shoppers everywhere is at an end, in the name of the planet of Venus, I'll punish you"

"You may not catch me, Auto-troops attack!" The colonel commandeered. He summoned his sword to use and recalled the orb floating that he had deployed to float above his head before he turned tail and ran.

"Mercury, Uranus, finish up here, me and Saturn will go after the coward!"

"Right" the other three shouted.

At once Saturn and Venus power jumped onto the second floor and started their dash to catch up to the retreating commander, for him, he deserved the attention of the two fastest senshi currently on the scene. Running and leaping fallen over objects or were just in the way; the two of them put the cold chill of fear into the colonel as he made for the corner and into a corridor that lead towards the some restrooms.

* * *

"Come in, this is Achen!" he started speaking "I need extraction, now!"

A moment passed and nothing happened.

"This is Achen…"

"Hold your horses" Denisa spoke, "I see you…"

Above his head a portal started to form above his head. Slowly, slowly, it became large enough for the orb, but not enough for him and not powerful for the anti-gravity effect to start lifting objects.

"Throw up the Orb…then I'll get you"

Achen screamed "no! Open the portal wider! Now!"

On the other end, Denisa gave a stern cold look that would be the last thing he saw from the kingdom. She raised her other hand and with one powerful sift of magic, engaged a brief surge of anti-gravity power, enough for the orb and his sword to slip from the hands of the colonel and through the portal

"You traitor!" Achen screamed

"You coward" Denisa merely rebuked, and closed the portal.

Left alone, his choices limited, his weapon gone and then the senshi arrived.

"Stop!" both Saturn and Venus turned the corner and faced the man alone at the end of the corridor,

They were rapidly closing in on him, but he had at least one last thing he could do before it was too late. He pulled from behind him a dagger that was sheaved on the back of his belt. It was ceremonial in design, but its purpose was more directed to the traditions of Viking tradition; when all else had failed, go berserk. He started running towards him, unafraid of what would happen, except to kill those in front of him. Saturn saw it first and Venus then saw it a second or two later, it was too late to turn around, the only thing separating them was a few second between this and the dagger, which if all according to Achen's plan would obliterate himself and them into the afterlife. Saturn pressed her glaive forward and in a blocking stance–

"Fatal…" he started to shout

"Silent…" Saturn matched his tone

"…Dagger!" he shouted his final word

"…Wall!" Saturn shouted the last word

At the moment when the dagger would've impacted and explode in Saturn's exposed wrist, a transparent shield bubble appeared to protect her and rebounded the dagger into projecting its full blast back at the attacker. All at once an explosion as powerful as the first one this evening erupted a foot from Venus and Saturn's eyes as a whitewall of fire disintegrated the enemy commander, then spread backwards as a wall of plasma heat travelled down seeking destruction. Despite passing over the doors of the restrooms, the wall of fire did not stop when confronted with the end of the hall where a fire escape door was. Incinerated instantly, a fireball erupted from the small opening on the side of the building. The shaking pressure pushed Saturn to the limit to hold up her shield, but soon enough the vibrations ceased and the whitewall of fire dissipated into nothingness.

Lowering her glaive, she saw what remained, a blackened corridor that spoke of a rocket-engine-like force that destroyed everything in its direct path. The colonel's body was now just evaporated ashes. It was all over and with the fall of the commander, the battle was over. Both Venus and Saturn were wordless for a minute, but when she finally managed to think of something, she didn't hesitate to say it,

"Lets go" Venus spoke

"Yeah" Saturn simply replied

* * *

Upon their return to where they left off, Mercury and Uranus had destroyed the last two auto-troops. After the barrage attack that worked so successfully in cutting down their numbers, the two remaining auto-troops had been a lot simpler to destroy. Now lying on the floor and burning, all they could do now was add smoke to the air that was already setting off fire alarms and sprinklers in various parts of the building.

"Did you catch up to him?"

Saturn only nodded, none of the Senshi needed to explain further than that. They had heard the explosion and despite how disheartening it was, they knew the man had killed himself rather than be captured.

"Right" Uranus's mood changed on learning that, "Well I guess that means we need to get the heck out of here!"

"Not quite…" Venus said "we still have a serious problem"

"How serious?" she simply asked.

* * *

Having nothing to do but wait, Saeko had time to think things over a lot, but without answers to questions, all she could do was ponder at what was going on outside. Listening to the sounds of the battle and counting the time since they had left, Saeko was wondering who was winning. But then the rumbles and vibrations died down, and before she thought to ask the cat what was going on, then the little communicator on the floor started beeping again. Once again the cat – was it really a cat? – who had been talking into it several times since her daughter's departure, pressed on the receive button.

"Artemis, we're done" Venus spoke "Get ready to move, we're getting a ride out of here"

"Alright, I'll inform the others" Artemis pressed the disconnect button, then pressed the other buttons for moon, mars and Jupiter "Senshi, Luna, turn around and head back, we're finished here"

"Roger" Mars replied a second before the light indicating her connection went off

"Understood" Jupiter spoke, and her light followed suit

"Okay…" Sailor moon finally spoke, rather disappointingly

Artemis hit the disconnect button before hearing Luna scold the leader for being so late for an attack. He knew that there would be words about this in the following day, but right after a battle was not the time to hear it. Artemis turned around and looked up at the middle aged woman who for the entire thing had remained silent. Despite what Artemis had suspected, Saeko had been looking for a chance to ask a question, but since the cat had been rather busy – literally acting as coordinator for the senshi – she had reneged on disturbing him. Now that everything was silent and his job apparently done, she elected to finally interrupt him.

"What's going on?" Saeko asked,

"It's all over" Artemis replied, deciding that just telling the truth would at least alleviate the tension in her sudden experience from communicating with a talking animal "Venus and Mercury, together with Saturn and Uranus defeated the enemy"

"Are they alright?"

"Sounds like it" Artemis continued "but enough of the questions for the moment, we need to get ready to leave…we never hang around too long after one of these"

As on cue she heard the sound of footsteps, Saeko stood up and looked out the door towards the main hallway. Fogged in the mist of sprinklers and smoke, the silhouette of not two, but three Senshi appeared. Running out of the mist, these silhouettes turned into real figures.

"Mom!" Mercury announced as she returned to the elevator, she still hugged her mother "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright dear…" she had gotten past the stage of denial that she was a clone or a fake, but she was still not quite past the stage of overcoming the fact her daughter was a senshi. Their embrace was a brief one however.

"We need to leave now" Venus interrupted "Uranus is meeting up in her car in a few minutes"

"Oh…Right" Saeko realizing reason in the urgency of the girls' actions. The three of them collected their bags. While Saeko bent down to pick up her almost discarded shopping bag, Saturn ha beat her in picking it up. Surprised by the gesture, she looked up to face the new girl, she'd never seen Sailor Saturn before.

"Hello" Saturn spoke "I'm pleased to meet you again...Doctor Mizuno"

"Hello…" Saeko replied, though couldn't honestly recall when she had ever met this little girl. But if she had, now was not the time to try remembering.

In a minute, the senshi and doctor were on the move. The spray of the fire sprinklers were starting to fog the smoke, providing an escape while people were starting to come out of the wreckages and hiding places and panic ensuing from the aftermath of such chaos. That none of the spectators even noticed the senshi running with a middle aged woman towards an exit was testimonial proof of the ignorance people have of their surroundings during a disaster. With Saturn leading the way – she knew where the car was parked – the group followed them to the car park foyer and as hoped, right on time a Honda Accord stopped suddenly and all four of them got into it as though having performed a bank heist.

"Go! Go!" Venus ordered while she was the last person in the car.

"On it!" Uranus hit the gas and in a moment the car rocketed away and towards the exit.

Driving like a normal car out of the exit, the moment they were clear of the speed bumps and toll gates; Uranus hit the pedal to the metal. All in all, the experience was nothing like she had ever experienced, the battle was one heck of thing, but upon only having to look at the person sitting in the passenger seat, she knew it was far from over.

"Where do we go now?" Uranus asked

Nobody really thought about that. Uranus knew it was too far to the house out of town for the other three to make it back afterwards, despite the benefit of Pluto and Neptune around to aid in this problem.

"The shrine?" Saturn suggested

"I don't think that's a good idea" Venus suggested "Rei's grandfather would be suspicious and the other senshi don't know yet"

"How about my place?" Mercury suggested, looking over to her mother in the front seat. It as a bold suggestion everyone thought, especially for her mother whom was still catching up on everything that happened.

"Well how about it Doctor Mizuno?" Uranus asked "we'll be able to answer any of your questions once we get there"

Saeko was taken aback by the bluntness of Uranus, she certainly reminded her of someone Ami knew, and was begging to ask that question. Given the offer that the senshi driver gave, it was a done deal "I guess it's an option…"

Uranus nodded in reply and turned her attention to road. the rest of the trip was a silent affair.

* * *

"Master intelligence officer" Denisa addressed Azrael from inside his den.

In its heyday, the room would've been a honeymooner's suite, but in its new capacity, it was both his quarters and the office from which his plans were created and examined. Azrael had been meditating when Denisa entered.

"What do you wish to argue about at this late hour" Azrael didn't turn his head or open his eyes, concentrating instead on focusing out the annoying and bashful visitor to his quarters.

"I have a gift for you, complements of a dead coward" Denisa raised the sword from her side and instead of formally handing it to him as patronizingly as she originally planned, merely stabbed it into the floor while she carefully placed the orb on the floor.

"Fear in combat is not cowardly" Azrael replied, sensing the message and processing philosophy into it. "That it is why we learn from our battles to learn how to succeed, so to alleviate fear with confidence"

"He was shameless" Denisa replied

"But his efforts were not in vain"

"Whatever you think old man" she turned to exit the den, knowing he would soon enough finish the meditation to the wall or whatever he was staring at and get on the with his job.

* * *

For a few minutes, nothing was said. They had arrived a few minutes earlier, but only after the four of them had transformed in the car, to prevent passers by wondering at the senshi arriving in their neighborhood. It was certainly a new experience to Saeko, whom didn't known how the Senshi would achieve this without flashy effects but more importantly the identity of the driver and the smallest of the senshi were revealed to her finally. She did know of Haruka, but she had not quite remembered when she had seen Hotaru, which for the moment was a blessing that everyone would keep for a little while longer. The words spoken by the smallest senshi had been a mistake, and until they could properly explain things, they were collectively worried at what Saeko's reaction might be.

Sitting in the living room in the only chair, Saeko looked around at the people who occupied the sofa, the table and the part of blank wall that one of them had chosen to lean on. Artemis had taken the coffee table and was looking at the girls on the couch where Ami was sitting in the center – flanked on either side by Minako and Hotaru – while on the other side of the coffee table, Haruka was leaning on the wall waiting for someone to speak. Saeko had long gotten over the shock and she had done remarkably well to regain her composure after her initial shock, but now her greatest worry had been a technical one, where to start in asking questions. Saeko looked at the table where Artemis sat, eyes now looking back at her with a hopeful glance that she would ask him a question soon and break the tension. Finally, in a calm tone that had come from her professional nature, she finally came up with one.

"How did you all become senshi?"

They all looked up and then at each other, but surprised that for a person who had an hour ago been scared out of her wits by a string of surprises, Saeko certainly had recovered a lot faster than they had expected and also for the question which surprisingly had merit. Every member of the room had a perversely different background and as a result, a completely different answer. It also – all of them realized a second later – was as good a starting place as any since none of them really knew what else to say.

"I guess I'll start" Minako spoke for the group, in being the first, she knew it would make it easier for the others to speak "I wasn't always Sailor Venus…in fact I only worked out who I really after I became Sailor V"

"Sailor V?" Saeko asked "Isn't that…"

"The mysterious crime fighter who took down gangs before disappearing?" Minako mildly put it "Nope, that was also me…I was the very first senshi to be reactivated, long before Sailor moon and everyone else"

The statement to Saeko sounded like a mix of boasting and heart felt honestly. There must've been some granted honor in being the first to be…what?

"Reactivated?"

Artemis fielded that one "the senshi aren't chosen Mizuno-sensei…they are born with their powers. When I met Venus, she was completely unaware of her true nature"

"…anyway, as Artemis said…" Minako picking up the baton from Artemis "...for awhile, I worked alone, then when Sailor moon started operating, we worked separately for awhile until we decided to join up with the other senshi…thus Sailor V became Sailor Venus"

Saeko nodded and now that she understood Minako's story, she turned to Hotaru. Of all the backgrounds, she had the most awkward and Haruka showed on her face at once that she was not even comfortable about telling Hotaru talk, so she stepped in.

"I got activated without any help..." Haruka started, both to bring the attention away from Hotaru and move the conversation forward at the same time "...I got reactivated roughly the same time my counterpart did...I cant quite explain how, but the simply storyis ...our heshin sticks just fell into our laps one day and somehow we worked out what to say…after that, we moved to Tokyo and then we ran into the others"

None of the others knew the background on Uranus and Neptune all that well, and as diligent as an unspoken oath, Haruka didn't elaborate too much this time either. However, in telling a short story, its resulting lack of details in her answer only meant that it would bring attention back on Hotaru sooner, thought this time, Saeko had decided to not push for an answer. Saeko wasn't quite sure why Haruka felt uncomfortable, but she had none the less picked up on the signs that it was a taboo subject. Saeko really didn't want to force the senshi to say something they were embarrassed about, which was one thing, but something had told her that there was more to Hotaru's background than could be explained in a simple answer. With that subject dropped, she instead turned to her own daughter, Ami, who for the entire time had been silent as a mouse.

"How did you find out?"

"I was discovered by Luna at first …who is also a cat like Artemis…..then came back with Sailor moon and reactivated me" Ami explained and then went into technicalities "counting Venus and Sailor moon, I was the third one to be reactivated, but the first one to be discovered by another senshi"

"I see…" Saeko seeing through the talk that Ami was still quite embarrassed about this. Even after transforming in front of her, fighting a monster, then retransforming back, where to Saeko's surprise, was briefly naked for a split second. "I guess by your looks…I'm the first non-senshi person to know about this"

"There have been a few people…" Ami spoke, "but they all had extra-ordinary powers as well….but to answer your question more directly, yes…you are the first parent of a senshi who knows"

Saeko was about to ask if she should feel honored, but sitting in her own home surrounded by four maiden warriors and a talking cat, she felt really stupid thinking of asking that. Just a moment before her daughter referred to being the first Senshi to be found by another senshi…was it her mild luck she was also the first parent to find out?

"We really don't know what to say about that" Artemis spoke for everyone "We never really have thought about this…and tonight just caught us by surprise…its going to be a whole new thing"

"That much is certain" Haruka noted as she silently wanted to curse out the obvious. To her mindset it was a terrible problem. Sure it was unavoidable – they needed the senshi or they would've been worn out before the backup arrived – but this even caused Haruka to wonder about the implications. She was surely never going to tell her parents who she really was, even if it gave her an edge on her father who had long since given up on his daughter. For five minutes, nobody uttered a word, letting the words Haruka said sink in. Her obvious displeasure went through to the minds of every occupant of the room, and there was no denying that she was right.

"Well..." Artemis spoke up as he stood "It's getting late, we'll let the other senshi at least know what's happened…then we can start working out what to do…and I entrust that you have questions you want to ask Ami alone"

"Yes…I do" Saeko looking to her daughter who merely looked down weakly at her hands.

Saeko didn't know how to put things, but the cat was apparently able to sway a lot of power over the senshi, much to her surprise since for a moment, it really felt like Minako had control. Then again, Artemis really did seem the advisor type as well, and it was like advisors to say such things. She could agree however that it was getting late and they all had to go home, but what thoughts came back briefly was the tricky wording laced by the cat. The implication that there was something that could be done frightened her, would they erase her memory? Could they? Nobody else seemed to speak in those terms, but the possibility didn't escape her so easily, after all the things she had seen tonight, laser-accurate amnesia seemed trivial

"Right" Minako got up, but before she left with the others, the inner Sailor Venus about her wanted to say something "Doctor Mizuno …"

"Yes Ms Aino?"

"I'm sorry you had to find out about us…I really am…but I hope we can find a way to make it work out alright"

The statement surprised the middle aged doctor and certainly a surprise to everyone else who had realized that they had been words needed to be said the whole night. That it took the senshi whom was technically one of the lowest scores on the exams this week to say this was proof that Minako's true intelligence couldn't be measured with in test results.

* * *

In a couple of minutes the three late night guests had exited the apartment and were driving off towards Minako's house. Watching from the balcony outside the front door of their apartment, Saeko looked down to see them off, even if they didn't quite see her as well in the night sky. Turning to enter back into her own home, she only then noticed the absence of her daughter. After closing and locking the door, Saeko walked into the living room where, much to her surprise Ami was sitting, where she had been the whole time, saying not a word more than she had to.

"Ami?"

Her head didn't move, but her breathing was audible. Of all the problems encountered tonight, Saeko figured that this must've been the toughest for Ami to relate. It was not quite the same to compare the releasing of magic or whatever she did in battle, to the confession to her own mother something that had been a secret for so long and been the subject of many lies. Saeko only needed to think back to the toy display and just how just looking at them with her mother made Ami uncomfortable, she couldn't tell her then, but – through a series of events this evening – she was now able to tell her now. A serious student, a diligent worker, a competent and skilled thinker and to that, Saeko could now add the title of Sailor Senshi to the list of things she knew about her daughter, Ami Mizuno.

Sitting next to her daughter, she waited for Ami to raise her head up. When she didn't, Saeko knew then it was shame. Shame that she had broken the oath of the senshi and let someone else find out? Or just that now, everything Ami said about where she went and her life was now exposed fabrication to cover up a deeper truth and was expecting the disapproval received when daughters lied to their mothers? Saeko didn't know what to really say about either, and certainly didn't have the authority to speak on the first thing. But the second was a lot easier to understand, more so since now Saeko had taken the time to rationally process her thoughts and had concluded that Ami didn't mean to deceive her – at least maliciously – which meant that Saeko could focus on telling her how she felt.

Stern mother she had been while Ami was a child, she had not been a heartless or unforgiving either. Whenever Ami did genuine wrong, where other parents punished, she corrected. Whenever Ami was sick, even with work; she tried her best to heal. And whenever Ami felt sad or guilty; Saeko always knew how best to bring her daughter back from despair.

"You know…" Saeko started "I never really told you which Senshi was my favorite"

Ami heard these words and looked up to face her mother, simply asking "Who was it?"

"She is always came across to me as a careful thinker, obviously smarter then the rest, elegant, but she always helped the others and she never let anyone down by trying her very best..." Saeko raised her arm to hug her daughter and bring her closer "...and now when I think about it, those are all qualities I know only one person in the world to have as well…"

Ami wanted to cry, but her own denial held it back. What dribbled out was a small leak of the amount of tears she felt building up. Saeko could see it and only continued to comfort her daughter and if not quite alleviate her fears, at least put them to rest for the moment. Ami couldn't tell if she was just saying this to make her feel better, but she wanted to be sure.

"Did you really like her?" she asked

"Yes…" Saeko replied "...so much so I felt bad about it sometimes"

"How come?" Ami curious to the strange choice of words

"Because I liked her as much as you…I must be horrible mother for saying that…" Saeko explained, quite honest with herself now "…But you know now I feel fortunate"

"Why?"

"Because all along it wasn't someone else I was looking at…it was you all along"

With such elegance as her soothing voice had on her daughter, Ami turned and embraced her mother, not quite letting herself cry about it; but at least confirming for her that all along, she had nothing to fear. The two sat there, on the couch, in their home, for five minutes not a word was spoken. But finally Saeko started to speak

"We'll talk about this in the morning…" she continued "For now, I just want you to know that I'm not afraid or angry with you…but I am worried about you, so get some sleep, and I'll ask you again in the morning about the real you"

Ami merely nodded, accepting the passive words of forgiveness. The two broke from their embrace and stood, she wiped back the water in her eyes and finally looked in her mother's eyes, who like she noted at the start of the week, were not too much different than her own. Hopefully, her feelings were just the same as hers as well.

* * *

_Author's Commentary: While processing this chapter for upload, I'm really surprised just how quickly I went through events and even how my writing compares to later on, It's a little worrying, though I keep telling myself this is really how the first act was going to play out._

_This second-to-last and last scene did take some time to workout, mainly because it is really hard to not write hammy dialogue or what has probably already been written a hundred times already, it's really frustrating too given how much of it depended on my own writing ability._

_Well this is the third chapter done, still quite a lot of story to go though, hopefully It'll be all processed before my deadline._


	5. Chapter 4: The Day After

**Chapter 4 – The Day After**

The general entered the suite expecting to see the man at work, and he did see just this. While not appearing to see much more than meditating a in front of a floating orb, the process which the colonel was performing was in fact a rare talent in which the man viewed information not quite like the conventional approaches others used. Instead of seeing it view by view, he had divided his attention to two or three views and watched all of them simultaneously. A strenuous and masterful skill, it developed the views that neither the orb nor a single auto-troop could've accomplished.

Azrael was as reliable a man as any of the general's subordinates, but the colonel was by far the most respectable for it. A dedicated student of the art of surveillance all his life, he had many times done things in the field of intelligence that made him a living legend. From reciting the final days of the court of Beryl to the insight into the many battles the senshi fought afterwards, without once being detected amongst the anonymous masses. But what made the man invincible – in the mind of the general at least – was his dedication, not to the benefits of the short term victory, but Azrael had worked very well in planning to fulfill the shared vision that the general himself had in restoring the kingdom.

Among his many gifts, he had one for teaching to those who would listen, and sitting beside him, was his apprentice of many years, but forever the junior to the man whom took her on to succeed him when the time came for he to become the new spy master. She had been taught well by her teacher, and as the general watched, Colonel Vita performed the same mystic art that Azrael had long since mastered. Her skill however as it was had been not perfected yet, and her task for the moment was to examine the single greater picture from Achen's view.

"Colonel" the general spoke a simple word

While interruptions were not welcomed by the spy master, Colonel Azrael did not bow to this general because of mere rank. He left to his assistant the task at hand and stood to then honor his general's presence.

"I do not wish for my words to sound less than grateful, but how soon will you have completed the survey of this data?"

"General, a great many things have been looked at, and I can report to you some things, but I have to yet locat my first clue"

The general didn't like bad news like the next person, but couldn't punish the man for honesty. However a consolation, the information that he gathered so far was of interest to the Colonel. With a silent nod and a gesture to step onto the balcony., the two older men stood away from the younger woman as she concentrated. Outside, the sky was already showing signs of dawn coming soon.

"They have been greatly underestimated" Azrael spoke simply

"Your surprise me colonel, a man such as yourself getting something misunderstood" the general's low tone providing a concern and a humor.

"Nothing has been misunderstood about them" Azrael explained on "the senshi's powers have been known for a long time, but their capability to fully utilize this power has been one I've questioned until now"

"Elaborate"

"Until now, they have been a mere shadow of the princesses of the moon kingdom" Azrael carefully worded to his general the example he was about to use "I have long watched them develop powers they cannot fully appreciate until their situation works against them"

The general simply nodded

"But last night I saw something I had never seen before from the senshi of our time" he waited a moment "I saw it in their eyes the most, their total lack of fear of combat. Confidence in lessons learnt and harnessed skills better appreciated"

"They came that close to your cameras?" the general asked in a low tone

"They are nothing I had every hoped to see from them…with only four senshi, I saw them fight an enemy that was still greater than their combined force"

"And what was the most impressive thing you found?" the general queried the colonel. It was important to him because told him a lot about their strengths, impressive skills always were the most powerful ones.

"Their tactical prowess" Azrael simply answered "no single move save their entry was a misplaced step, mistakes on the battlefield are inevitable…but their grandest strike…you should see for yourself how they have married their magic to it"

The colonel took several steps indoors and raised his hands to the orb. Its functions were many, a collector of everything it had link to and a viewer in both his special skill and for the more amateur skilled. A screen showed the battle's great moment. Where the four had grouped up and executed a set piece battle of their own with the grace of ballet. The timing of different skills and tactical insight to arrange them was a masterpiece.

"It's majestic…" the general replied before adding "...and fearsome"

"They have never worked so well together before, senshi have always worked together, but this… is how they say here 'a game changer' to our plans"

The two were about to step outside before the third member of the group spoke

"Azrael, General" Vita spoke as she snapped open her eyes and stood "I think you need to look at this"

The two turned their attention to the younger colonel. Next to Achen, Vita was by far the youngest colonel in the group, but this didn't make her inexperienced or inferior. Far from it, Vita had been chosen by Azrael for a special reason, she was from the beginning a naturally gifted young woman with all the signs of a future spy master. And just like her teacher, had a keen eye for seeing what others didn't. She raised her hand to bring up the projection again, the screen of the battle reappeared. It was of Achen's part of the battle, or be exact one of the smaller auto-troops.

"Vita, elaborate" Azrael he asked before his general did, he was at least the teacher to the woman, and like one, and he felt a need to shield her from his superior.

"Azrael, General" she started "I might have located something that might be important to the identification of the sensei"

"Really?" the general's low tone voice was surprised. Had the student noticed something the master didn't? Wouldn't that be an entertaining notion?

"General…I have been curious of something in the first few moments of the sensei's appearance here" Vita showed the video where both Mercury and Venus appeared from nowhere "this section General…does not have any way out except here, at least that I'm aware of. Having watched this video from the beginning, I do not see anyone running into here"

"that's an interesting observation" Azrael nodded "but it means nothing to us unless we can see it…the auto-troops materialized in mid air high above before landing there…the senshi could've run there before we landed"

"Yes…but may I elaborate another observation I discovered?"

"It cannot hurt...continue" Azrael spoke, he had been interest in knowing the real reason she interrupted his briefing with the general. She wasn't quite a student of politics, but Vita must've had strong faith in her convictions to have the courage to interrupt them. At once, several brief videos appeared in a grid, each of them were of in order; one of the two auto-troops that landed on the third floor and had gone independent…at least four small auto-troops, and the orb's overall view. They all played through their clip just to let them sink into their minds, then they rewound before pausing each video at a point that didn't seem to place any emphasis on the movements of either the auto-troops or the senshi. Azrael didn't see it at first, only because he had been long out of the loop from human society and their technology to remember such things.

"Sensei, look at what Saturn is standing on when she is launched from the hidden passage to right" she focused and enlarged the picture.

"It just looks like one of those…" Azrael spoke before he paused, for fully a moment he saw it without emotion, then he started to laugh. The general was really the one to be the most surprised when the man did so, he was always under the assumption that spy masters don't laugh. But the laugh was confirmation to Vita that her teacher saw it, and that she had impressed him, her eyes found a clue he didn't.

"General…" Azrael started "When I'm long gone, the kingdom will not be disadvantaged…for my student will have replaced me"

"I do not understand" the general asked, concerned at the tone and at the nature of the complement he had just given his student "What has she found that you missed?"

"General" Azrael began "the device Saturn is standing on…they have many of these in the building…but these are also eyes we do not have control over"

"Explain"

"This society is full of paranoids, just like us, but their paranoia is spread across to more trivial things…these are security cameras…designed in part to collect evidence of mundane crimes"

"And?"

"If my pupil is indeed correct…these have collected a greater number more than our own surveillance efforts would have" Azrael explained as he resized and enlarged the picture of Saturn. He returned it to another that showed the four of them together, but separated by the blast, right above mercury's head in fact was a security camera filming the battle. "These cameras are all throughout the building"

"So your suspicion is that the human cameras have evidence of the sensei we need?" the general then wanted to know how "Just how important would they be?"

"Important enough that it might...no...will catch a senshi before transformation from her human form"

The revelation was one the general needed to think about. So the video evidence they had collected was almost useless in their objective, but they had found more evidence that 'might' have what they are looking for. There was something ironic about that the general knew, but had they found nothing at all, Azrael would have to admit failure to his peers, but it was still a successful mission with a minor compromise. He opened his eyes and turned to the younger colonel.

"Your teacher will be missed…but he has trained you well colonel" the general spoke simply, at once designating the woman an asset of the kingdom.

"My highest regards for the honor general" Vita spoke, with just a bit of graceful sprit in her, treasuring the moment when she was noticed by one of the great ones.

The general turned to speak to the senior colonel "Come to me when you have a solution to locating and acquiring this evidence for our mission"

With that, the man left the two to themselves, Azrael was more proud of his student now than ever in his long years of tutorage. But a moment came to him when he realized something about the films that even he should've noticed straight away.

"Colonel…" Azrael asked softly "Weren't you suppose to look only at the overall view from the orb?"

"Yes sir you did..." Vita replied, knowing that he would ask about this departure from her orders "...but you of all people have said to chase curiosity if you find it"

"...and the cameras nowhere near your original objective?"

"Again…confirming if there was a camera that caught them transforming" Vita elaborated "...sadly this wont be the case"

A video came up on the display, playing am auto-troop firing rounds at the wall. It showed with crystal clear display the camera that would've shown them blown out of existence, along with several more during the process of the battle. It angered him that the auto-troops had destroyed such a brilliant chance to locate the identity of more than two senshi. But he was certain that his younger student knew that when she only referred to the other two.

"Vita…this is a brilliant find" Azrael announced "but to confirm this…will be a task even greater than this"

"How will we confirm it?" Vita asked

"When important things are recorded, they are more often than not seen by those who have authority" Azrael dictated one of his many rules learnt of his experience.

"Oh course..." Vita replied, knowing now that today their objective had to be to find those tapes.

* * *

Saeko didn't really sleep a lot after her talk with Ami. She had struggled for a few hours before finally submitting to the need for sleep, in which she dreamt in replay the experiences of the previous night. It was a three part play to her, first struggling to find a way to leave work, then the joyous night out with her daughter that had after all been the whole objective. Then came the grand finale, the battle of courage that she never saw herself, but through the power of imagination illustrated for her own eyes. She wildly imaged as her daughter and her friends battled a monster, Venus shooting off rapidly with her pistol, Saturn and Uranus stabbing it and Mercury, with her crystal sword delivering the finishing blow. Such fantasy had Saeko excited so much that she had almost forgotten the tired expression that Ami briefly had when she returned, which had rebounded upon seeing her mother again.

She rarely got such good sleep in so little time, but Saeko felt very comfortable when she awoke to the glinting white light that protruded through the dark curtains she hung in her room. Having not the slightest inclination to leave her bed just yet, she made her first organized thoughts of the day all about Ami. Now over the dream fantasy of a fight she never saw, she couldn't stop thinking about the greater secret exposed, last night almost felt surreal when they were all in her living room talking about it. Not just Ami, but based her suspicions, it was quite possible all her closest friends were possibly senshi, Saeko didn't know for sure, but it would be a question she'd ask. But her thoughts on the subject finally hit a brick wall when she remembered something else about last night. The moments afterwards when Ami wordlessly confessed guilt to a secret that she had, oblivious to her mother, prayed she'd never need to learn. It had shaken her so violently that her reaction to her mother's consoling words had been stumped by an inane denial and expectation of worse.

Ami had long expected an immediate and deafening rejection from her mother that again, she had wordlessly confessed to. Saeko had worried about that before succumbing to sleep, and now that she was awake again to think about it, she continued where she left off. While she initially started confused, and admittedly scared of the situation, a tiny inner voice had told her to wait instead of lashing out with irrational thoughts…that her many years of learning patience held her long enough to expel the thoughtless thoughts was a fact Saeko was now proud of. Her appreciation for the moment came later on and helped her think oh how Ami had been feeling at that very moment. Scared of rejection, which Saeko had no unkindly intention of considering at this point. she had made her daughter at least calm down.

In hindsight, there was really nothing she could've done about the guilt, and again she was especially glad that her rarely used motherly instinct, along with her excellent bedside manner that had worked so well together to help her daughter understand. Having answered this for herself now, the question then became a simpler one.

"What's next?" Saeko asked the ceiling, the white wall above her head didn't know the answer, and even if the walls could talk, she suspected that it wouldn't have had an answer suitable for the moment anyway.

Knowing the inevitable, she pulled the warm blankets away and rolled to first sit, before finally standing up. After the usual tasks of staring at her face in the mirror and checking the clock for her first accurate fix on the time of the day, the first actually important task came to mind. Opening the door to her room, Saeko heard no noise and saw no light, a sign that meant she was the first to awaken, and therefore the living room curtains had blocked out the noise. A brief extra trip to the window corrected the light problem and in a moment Saeko had a view of greater Juban and if it weren't for the low cloud cover and foggy horizon, a view of the greater Tokyo distinct. The next action was to turn the television on.

"…will reconsider the bill when the diet reconvenes in the New Year" the newscaster finished her previous story "in financial news now…"

Saeko fished out of the fridge for ingredients for breakfast and a coffee bag for the machine. The typical affair for breakfast was always simplified for both Mizuno's, while on weekends they could cook a decent meal, they had been too distracted to buy food for such a purpose. Just as the b-roll footage started with a report talking in the background, Ami emerged from her room, about as tired as her mother felt.

"Good morning…" Ami said as she sat down on the first stool free to her.

"Good morning Ami"

She hadn't been able to get much sleep either and for pretty much the same reason. Her sleep however hadn't been interrupted by natural light, rather by the subtle noises of the large television in the living room. It wasn't on too loud, but it still carried a muffled incomprehensive sound to her bedroom on the other side of the wall. Faced with the loosing battle to adapt her ignorance of morning to the growing number of sounds that consciousness detected, Ami eventually gave up and awoke. After maybe a minute of mindless chores that mimicked her mother's, she opened the door to her room to face another day.

"What would you like for…" Saeko started to ask when her eyes focused on the television.

"Returning to our top story" the female news anchor continued "The Juban Super Center last night was the scene of what officials have described as an unprecedented attack by suspected terrorists"

Both senior and junior Mizuno stopped what they were doing when they heard the statement and looked at the television.

The reported continued straight faced, "At roughly 8:30 in the evening, a large group appeared out of nowhere and proceeded to damage property…for more on the story, Tanaka Azuri reports at the center"

In what was really an American style that the news networks here were now picking up, the reporter started to speak as shots of B-roll showing the devastation of the previous night were shown on screen.

"The destruction speaks of an earthquake…in what was described as battle by witnesses…at around 8:30, witnesses reported seeing a number of lights appear in mid air over the central part of the juban centre and massive monsters drop from the bottom of the lights"

Saeko and Ami turned fully now to face the television and light curious insects to a bright light, drew closer to the screen as to get a better view.

"While security guards were unable to subdue the attackers…by chance, several of the well known vigilantes group….the sailor senshi"

Saeko reached down for the television remote and turned up the volume a bit.

"While a classic well timed arrival by the team did save lives…it hadn't stopped this store from the damage as patrons reported seeing the action"

On the screen an excitable woman spoke of her brief encounter with the real life Sailor Saturn. "She came right through the window..." the shop keeper spoke "...I was almost afraid she had been badly injured, but she just got up and left…I had never seen her before…I didn't even know which one it was until my coworker told me..."

Tanaka Azuri then appeared on screen standing just outside the shopping center entrance where police and firemen were standing around, protecting the building from being entered by the public. Ignoring the activity behind him, he continued "Police commented that this marks the first major appearance of the sailor senshi in over a year…rumors that the investigation team might include inspectors from the military has been spoke of among sources…but could not be confirmed…this is Tanaka Azuri for NHK morning news"

And just like that, the news brought the whole subject back up into the conscious mind for both mizuno's and in Ami's case, at least confirmed that this was no dream, it had really happened and her mother just to her side was more or less in the loop about her alter-ego. She hadn't thought of it as a dream, not really, just if it had been, it would've been wonderful and her life could've continued as normal. But instead of some very weird dream, reality took its place and reality for Ami now was to discuss this with her mother all the questions she must've had building up in her mind.

"So I guess this means I have to tell you everything else now, don't I?" Ami spoke

Saeko didn't know how to take that. She sure didn't want to come off with the impression to Ami that she was going to force her daughter to talk. But the comment could also mean she wanted to talk now like promised. She decided at least for the moment, to clarify that her curiosity would heed if her daughter didn't feel comfortable about it.

"You don't have to dear…" Saeko replied "I don't want you to feel like you have to just because I know now"

"I'm sorry…I just think…"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Ami paused, and thought about it. She knew she had to, at least to repent for the lies told and at the same time knew her mother was being sincere when she said that. But Ami recognized the last thing they needed now was for the two of them to feel awkward or separate because of this issue alone. Ami summoned her strength and started to speak,

"I just want to make sure you know…" Ami started to explain "that I really wish I had to lie to you"

"I know that Ami" Saeko said "Secret identities mean lies have to be told…even to mothers. But let's forget that shall we?"

Ami sighed some relief at that and then continued to ask, "So what do you want to know?"

"Well…"

Both of them were silent. She had questions just a moment ago, where did she put them? Somehow she dropped them in her head somewhere and now Saeko looked funny as she tried to think of them all again. The expression she made surprised Ami who wondered why she made that, then when realized why, she couldn't help but chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Saeko asked,

"You had so many questions lined up that you forgot them all didn't you?" Ami spoke before giggling again.

Saeko at least saw the humor in it and she started to chuckle as well. When the coffee maker and toaster both started making their customary noises which stopped Saeko from her brief laughter while she walked over to collect her breakfast. Ami, who wasn't in as much a rush as Saeko, collapsed onto the comfy white sofa and looked for the remote to turn the television off. If Ami was going to have this conversation with her mother, her best instinct was to at least turn the volume down so they couldn't be easily distracted.

"Okay, I thought of one" Saeko replied as spread some jam onto her toast "if you are Mercury, Haruka is Uranus, Minako is Venus and that little Hotaru girl is Saturn, who are the others…and have I met them?"

"You've met them all…" Ami replied as she lay back and closed her eyes to recite the five her mother didn't know "let's see; Usagi…she's sailor moon…Rei…She's Sailor mars, Makoto is Jupiter…"

"Your whole study group huh?" Saeko replied as she sat down in the chair she occupied the previous night "...I guess that explains why you're so close to them"

"I guess it does…" Ami replied. She had explained so many times in the past why she hung around partiality low grading students, but now all those lies were supplanted with a much easier to explain truth.

"So who else, there is…one, three, four people left"

"Four?" Ami said

"Yeah…Pluto, Neptune, moon junior and prince moon" Saeko using then names she remembered by the commercials, patients and the toy stand.

"Uh…okay…" Ami said cautiously worried how her mother remembered that "Well there's Pluto, who you've met I think once…she is really Setsuna Meioh"

"I remember her…"

"Yeah…" Ami knowing that this conversation was about to get a lot weirder "Well you know Haruka, so it shouldn't be too surprising that Michiru is really sailor Neptune …and that's all the senshi"

"What about the other two?" Saeko asked, wondering how even Sailor Mercury could forget Sailor Moon Junior or Prince Moon. The problem with the media interpretation of events was that the substitution of fact could become fact on its own right. Despite having just told the truth, her mother was not convinced.

"There aren't other senshi apart from us nine…" ami replied straight faced

"What about prince moon?"

"Prince moon, what are you talking…" Ami's voice trailed off the end before she realized what was going on "…now I see"

"What do you mean?" Saeko asked "I mean if they advertise all the senshi…I just thought…"

"They got pretty much every senshi right…but that's honestly where the facts stop" Mercury now seeing where this morning would be going for her "there is no such person as prince moon…there is however a tuxedo kamen…whom I'm pretty sure is who they meant when they made his doll"

"I see" Saeko replied, almost embarrassed at being wrong, after all she was Sailor Mercury and she would know better than a toy company right?

"I know him as well…in real life he is Mamoru" Ami elaborated. At this point she was only adding extra information to the original question, but it did debunk at least one of she knew many misnomers and false facts about the senshi that she was sure her mother had learnt.

Saeko knew of him very well, the boyfriend of Usagi's that she'd often commented was too young to be thinking about marriage. It all made sense in a way, if she was to marry someone, it should at least be someone who knew her secret and could be comfortable with it. She then continued to wonder about the other one of the two unaccounted for names.

"What about Sailor Moon junior?" She asked "is she really a senshi?"

Ami honestly didn't expect her to bring up Chibiusa, since first of all, how do you possibility explain her? Even with the other nine senshi, Chibiusa – and to a similar extent Saturn – was just one of the few you couldn't honestly describe without knowing all the facts first, and even then you'd doubt yourself if it's true.

"She's real…" Ami started and then paused, working it out as she went "but…it's kind of…hard to explain…"

Ami sat there for a minute silently working out what to say. The wise thing would've been to say she wasn't a senshi at all, but Ami was neither a born liar, and even if she had thought of it, she still wouldn't have. Saeko knew from experience – at least from the case regard Hotaru so far – that there were some especially hard things to explain, but before she was about to tell her to not worry about it, the house phone rang. Only one person could be ringing at this early hour and Saeko could curse the woman for interrupting this moment. Putting her coffee on the table, she stood up and walked to the phone.

"Hello?"

"Good morning Doctor Mizuno" spoke the other end

"Good morning Mei…" Saeko replied. She knew her voice all too well, it was the one that beckoned the bad news to doctors everywhere in her department and the reason why she never saw Ami as much as she would. She was from the administration department, in charge of calling doctors in and whom Saeko had wrestled with the past week to get the six or so hours she deserved off.

"We've got a bit of a problem here"

"So I guessed…" Saeko replied while waiting for the next line from Mei as she wrapped philosophy on the moment. With the call of her phone, Saeko's moment of surreal adventures and discoveries were over, and reality was calling her back to join with it.

"I guess you saw in the paper this morning then..." Mei wondered, not quite getting the veiled insult that her voice was to every doctor who didn't like her "Well Ryosuke is apparently short a senior doctor downstairs, something about Hiroyoshi being too tired to carry on…whatever it is, Hatori cant make it in because he had to take care of his daughter…we need you in, how soon can you come?"

"Well, give me an hour and a half and I'll be…"

"In an hour? Thanks so much!" Mei replied before Saeko could finish with a much more reasonable time offer. Before she could correct her all she could hear was a hang up tone. Defeated again, Saeko put the phone back in the holder and turned to face the music to say she had to walk out.

"Work?" Ami said, standing up and waiting to hear how soon she had to leave.

"Yeah…" Saeko sighed as she spoke "well, I guess you got saved by the bell"

Ami felt bad for her mother just then, for the moment forgetting how she was honestly glad to have bought a way out of answering a stupid question. But her mother really needed a break, day in and out, weeks on end, and just getting even six hours of time off was really a stretch for her. Further, Ami was actually starting to feel comfortable about talking to her, not enough to talk about Chibiusa or Hotaru yet, but at least enough to correct the minor mistakes that she was bound to think of.

"…well I have to get ready now" Saeko turned away and walked to her room to collect her towel, to leave in fifteen minutes.

"Mom?"

"Yes Ami?" the reply asked from her mother's room. Ami walked to her door to get a closer answer.

"We're still going to talk about this later, right?" Ami's voice wavered at the end between hope and concern.

"Only if you want to dear…" Saeko said as she exited the room. Stopping there to see Ami, she saw that look on her face again, she had to say so "…look...if you don't want to, I completely understand, but if you want to, I'll be all ears when I get home"

Ami understood that a lot better and nodded. With that sorted, Saeko stepped into the bathroom. She felt like saying it, but Ami decided to just say it to herself

"I hope you get home soon too mom"

* * *

"Well considering the circumstances…" Setsuna said as she sipped her coffee "I'd have to say we did pretty well"

"That's pretty poor reasoning" Haruka replied "we have a huge problem. Ami's mother is now in the loop and we don't know what to do"

"I have ears. I do remember what you said" Setsuna replied as she remembered where her cup's saucer was.

Upon their arrival home late last night, she and Hotaru had no choice but to report the circumstances of the battle and the more important problem that had occurred during and in the aftermath. Fortunately, Setsuna had acknowledged nothing rational could be discerned at such a later hour and they decided to talk about it the next morning. When morning came, Michiru was informed of the development and after seeing the morning news report; the four of them sat around the table at breakfast to discuss the problem. Sadly for Setsuna, rational appeared to have not come to the table with either Haruka or her partner this morning.

"Well, I have to agree with Haruka…" Michiru answered "this is going to be a huge problem if we don't handle it in the right way"

"I think you both have to learn to have a little faith in your friends…" Setsuna replied critically "It's not a reporter who found out, it's her mother"

"Setsuna, you can't seriously be comfortable with this, it's never happened before"

"But we all knew that it was going to happen, so why complain about the inevitable?" Setsuna assured her two friends before going on.

Their argument was going nowhere. For ten minutes now they had just argued about how serious the problem was and nothing was being talked about how to deal with the problem. To say the least there were other problems as well – like the seemingly minor issue of who attacked the shopping center last night – which the morning news seemed to think was more important than world events in space, Kosovo and the United States. But Setsuna couldn't totally deny it to herself however, both of them were worried about the precedents and the concerns on how it might affect their futures. She knew all too well their circumstances, especially Haruka's.

"What do you think about all of this…Hotaru?" Setsuna decided to turn to the youngest at the table and see if she was also more mature than her parents on this matter.

"I'm not sure…" was her answer, which by Setsuna's definition of mature thinking made her smarter than the other two by default.

She had been sitting at the table silently, eating her cereal and trying as best as she could to keep up with the argument, which had been energy was wasted on useless exercise. When she failed to keep up, Hotaru escaped to her own thoughts as they were and tried to construct her own ideas. It was concerning that a secret she was supposed to keep was now known to someone outside the senshi clan. But from her impressions so far, Ami's mother didn't seem to be the kind of person that both her older family members were describing.

"But what do you think of Ami's mother?" Setsuna asked again

"She's was very kind…" was the simple answer "…when I couldn't answer a question, she didn't force me to…"

"What kind of question was it?" Setsuna wondered. She wasn't aware of the ad-libbed mistake Hotaru had made at the shopping center.

"I was asked about how I became a senshi…" Hotaru said softly "she was asking everyone, but I couldn't explain to her…"

"How come?"

"Because she told Doctor Mizuno she had met before…and she really hasn't!" Haruka almost yelled at the pre-teen girl, her anger at the mistake now boiling over.

"But she has hasn't she?" Setsuna not quite getting it, or at least letting on she didn't.

"Before she died…yes" Haruka spoke with agonizing fury "So she couldn't possibly make up an excuse after that...because she would have to explain everything about…that!"

Setsuna said nothing, instead just sipping from her coffee. Her mind thought about the problem before deciding that, yes it was quite serious. From her recollection Ami's mother had treated Hotaru once or twice before she had gone to fight the pharaoh and die. She had then been reborn, but yes, whether or not she had seen Doctor Mizuno between now and then had honestly escaped her mind. But was it really going to matter now? She probably was going to look up Hotaru's medical records by the end of the day, find the anomaly and then what?

"Well it certainly wasn't supposed to be intentional now was it?" Setsuna tipped her coffee back as her two companions looked aghast.

"Are you serious, what's she going to think of us if she finds out?" haruka complained

"Not if...when" Setsuna placed her cup down again "She's a smart woman, but I don't think she would look for answers because one of us were afraid of answering…but when the time comes however…" she looked down at Hotaru who felt the lowest form of guilt this morning "I'll explain to her the how and why"

Upon thinking about that, Setsuna thought of something else, something that seemed to eclipse the problem with Hotaru and neither Haruka nor Michiru seemed to have spared a thought about. It wasn't their fault really, it was just that their perversely different situation with their own parents just didn't offer the same circumstances to think about.

"How did Ami look like when she had to talk to you four later on?" Setsuna asked the two. Haruka went silent for a moment, having really not thought of the problem before. Hotaru however had been thinking of just the thing and made her thoughts known.

"She was very scared"

The conversation about the problems the other two senshi had seemed to evaporate as they thought about the situation from their allied Senshi's point of view.

"She must've had it tough…" Setsuna wondered to herself "…it's her mother after all"

"But there's more to it" Hotaru continued "we heard it from Minako when were taking her home…"

Haruka had honestly been too pissed last night after their visit that she had blocked out everything from her surroundings except what she was looking at in front of her car. Meanwhile in the back Hotaru and Minako had spoken about why they were there in the first place.

"Minako said…" Hotaru started to explain "that Ami's mother had been trying all week to get time off to spend with her…you know how she's a doctor and everything? Well because of that…She never sees her"

"Go on…" Setsuna asked, the other two remained silent

"Well last week she promised Ami that she'd go shopping with her…but she almost didn't get to go because her work cancelled her day off or something…Ami didn't know…but she was so worried that she couldn't make it that Minako came along just to keep her company if she didn't come…but then she somehow managed to get off work and make it in time..."

The other three remained silent before Michiru wrapped the poetics on the irony.

"Mixed blessings…if she stayed at work instead and broken her promise with her daughter…we'd be business as usual…"

Setsuna was thinking much the less the same, it was a lot easier to think about it being a freak accident rather than a strange gambit of fate. Was it just that? Fate that she showed up at all when the odds were just so heavily against her? It might as well, how else could she explain the providence of being trapped in an elevator with no way of hiding their secret or making logical excuses.

"Hotaru…" Michiru asked "How do you think Ami's mother will react to her daughter"

She took a moment to think about it before answering "Ami's mother…she won't be mad with her…but..."

"But?"

"I don't know Ami will feel"

Setsuna looked up at the clock, barely ten in the morning. If she knew the girls by now, they would've already arranged a meeting at the Hino's temple, it was the only place they could think of to talk about such things. Surely enough, they would know soon both how Ami's mother reacted and how Ami herself felt about all of this.

* * *

At Minato district police station in central Juban, a different briefing was starting quite similar to the one Ami had just had both the previous night and this morning. After a long exhaustive night collecting evidence from the crime scene and collecting countless testimonies and statements from witnesses, this morning the real work began for the taskforce in charge of investigating last night's attack. Ever since the first ever reported sighting of Sailor Moon and Sailor V, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department had been stuck with the unusual and somewhat complex task of investigating the abnormal activities that seemed to summon the senshi in the first place, as well as studying the senshi themselves in a hopeful bid to learn more about them, which in turn was a bid to explain to greater public what was going on.

It was a complex task for the police force. While they had long since accepted there were just some things they couldn't do that these senshi could do quite well, their responsibility to prevent crime, enforce the law and protect the peace, as well as their authority on such matters had been undermined by what they best described as militia vigilantes. As a result, the police commonly were confused about how to feel about the senshi and how to deal with them. What made it especially hard were the questions that the public had tirelessly asking over the years that couldn't be answered. Those questions simply being; who the senshi were, what they wanted, who they were fighting and what they wanted.

To at least try answering the questions and alleviating the caseloads that piled up; the police force had assigned a taskforce of investigators and detectives to look through every single case involving the Senshi. In its heyday, there were as many as two hundred officers on the taskforce full time. This included going over testimonies, reviewing security camera footage, constructing statistical computer model patterns to try prevent attacks, and treating each site and each case with the same careful forensic skill as one would a murder scene. But in almost three years, while all of this was accomplished, all of them were still – now reluctantly in some cases – looking for clues to answer the one simple question; who were they?

Sitting inside a briefing room on the fourth floor of the building, five men and one woman were about to work on answering at least some of those questions. Their job this morning was a simple yet important one; they had the task to sit in a dark room to simply put, watch movies.

"Well, first of all I'd like to thank you all for coming in on such short notice…especially since this is really the first time we've done this in awhile" the man standing at the front started speaking.

"No problem Kenji…it's your Saturday too" the oldest person in the room laughed, the others around the table soon followed. They were all friends within the force and the community of detectives while competitive most times, was still cooperative to each other within the branch itself.

"Well I guess we'll make this part as quick as possible" Kenji started while flipping open his note pad for some minor details "As you know there was an attack last night at the Juban Super Center…8 critical injured, 16 serious, 32 light or sustainable injuries…serious building damage to the building's public concourse and several stores" his voice lifted up at the end as he almost sneezed "We've been called in to…well…yeah…and I guess you know why" then he finally sneezed "there we go…as you know this is the first appearance of friends in the miniskirts in eighteen months, so we're going to spend to next week going through those tapes over there and find out why"

"So they are finally back huh?" Minoru asked as he sat upright in his computer chair. "Think it's to help sell more dolls at Christmas time?"

"Might be Minoru..." Kenji replied with a laugh "But I'm pretty sure they didn't need to wreck half a shopping center to do it"

"I know" he chuckled "my daughters have grown out of them anyway…switched over to those stupid pocket monster things now"

"Doesn't feel like that long does it" Ayaka added. She was the most junior member of the group, but she had been around for some of the later cases. She could sympathize with the elder detective, her own daughter was now interested in make up and western pre-teen soap operas now. With the five more minutes of small talk, the team got down to business and took out their pens and pads. The whole procedure was still fresh in their minds despite the long gap in their execution.

"Well I guess I don't need to go over the procedure then…" Kenji observed to everyone "Shall we begin?"

Kenji got five 'yes' replies and with that he turned to the first VCR on the 'stack' and pushed in the first VHS tape of the literally dozens they'd have to watch. Picking up the remote, he hit the power button for the projector and started the show.

"Alright, this is light pole camera 5, third floor, South wing. Tape security code number 325-1 for the month of December 1997"

At once everyone started to scribble down the notation, some seriously like Ayaka, some just lazily in shorthand like Minoru. The video started playing, it showing that the camera initially showing the appearance of the two heavy auto-troops on top of the third floor strolling down looking for trouble. Its camera could move on its bearing point and it followed them until the two robots like creatures stopped almost level between the camera and the wall. The next couple of moments the robots just seemed to be blowing off their guns that came as apart of the arm.

"That's crazy!" Ayaka said "it's fused with the…"

"I wouldn't worry too much…I've seen crazier things than this"

Kenji started to narrate from the witness summaries he had in his hand "well these two seemed to just be strafeing the building for awhile and every camera past this one doesn't have much else to show because of it. The one mounted just under the emergency exit got taken out and so did the one on pole 6 and 7…so this camera pretty much is the only one that caught the whole thing"

Then the view flashed bright before the adjustment in focus, what they had seen was the first of two earth shaking attacks here. The camera slowly panned to see the source the beam. Sure of enough it found it and zoomed in; Sailor Uranus moving around to duck behind a shrub box while the dust obscured the vision of the robots. Upon seeing the short haired blond, all five pencils started scribbling a lot faster than their lazy pace from before. The timestamp was 20:34:44:552. For a brief period of time the camera stayed on the shrub, but before the camera moves back, everyone is surprised to see not just one, but two senshi jump from the shrub box before it was blasted from sight. The video was paused briefly, in clear, but foggy VHS quality; they confirmed the appearance of second senshi as Sailor Saturn. The video resumed.

"Wow…they almost took a beating" minoru whistled, "Do you have that video of the dress shop?"

"One moment"

It was not really apart of the procedure, but this group had been pretty lax about the handing of things that they often paused to look at other footage. Kenji switched the projector's remote to pick up the second VCR on the stack and he put in the VHS tape labeled SHOP 3045 12/97 and pressed play. The benefit of security had been their following of instruction to wind the tapes to the moment when the attack took place. When the time stamp hit 20:35:00:000, the projector stopped its fast forward and resumed playing. For a moment nothing happened and then something did. At exactly a few moments after timestamp indicated by the previous video, a girl who looked to them to be no older than 12 or 13 made an abrupt entrance through the left window of the store, smacking into not only the window but several dummies that held up gowns for potential sale. Rolling onto the center of the floor, she just stayed for a moment.

"Ouch…" the third senior detective spoke "she really took a hit that time"

But she eventually got up and in a matter of moments, she was standing by the door and holding up her weapon - which looked absurdly long for a girl her height and age to be holding - and a few seconds later disappearing. Kenji stopped the video there and hit the remote back to the original channel he had it on. The video still paused on the dress shop, he played it again. With them now waiting for her to reappear on this side of the wall, the detectives all wrote down their assessment so far: a little rusty. Eventually she appeared and started to run, a good thing too they noticed a moment later when the two robots off screen tried to catch her in a strafe. But the camera followed her and saw her hide behind the wall that Uranus had disappeared.

"That was gutsy" Minoru said "running like that when you know guns are going to shoot…are we going to switch to another tape?"

"Not yet" Kenji said "the security guys said this one is that shows everything…"

The two senshi then appeared, weapons drawn, but not preparing to incant any spells, rather running towards the robots. Predictable by all six detectives, the robots started shooting. But none of them expected what would follow.

"Oh ho! Ho! Ho!" Minoru at once chanted, the others made similar sounds, but it was him who spoke for the group "oh man…that's incredible!"

"I am not going to play table tennis with those two!" the fourth detective spoke laughing

Three out of the five immediately scribbled out 'a little rusty' and wrote instead 'a lot of improvements'

The endless steam of fire being knocked away continued for a minute or two and for every spare second the chants of the other senior detectives just became more excited, but eventually they seemed to reach their logical conclusion and they all continued to observe like civil people. The fight that Uranus and Saturn put up was tracked with the camera until they reached the location where a ceiling mounted camera over the emergency exit was and had been taken out. They then ducked out of the way and became blind to the robots. Their distance was now close enough that the camera could just see the end of one of the robots as it zoomed out enough.

"That was pretty amazing" Minoru said "but that must've pushed them to the limit"

They continued to watch for a moment, the camera staying on the pair who seemed to be taking advantage of the distance they had covered, they were close enough to do something they figured, and just what was the question. Upon seeing Uranus's gesture, they knew something was about happen. They saw the woman proceed to kneel down and place her hands out like a cup. Meanwhile Saturn had taken some steps back as far she could and then started to run the few steps until she was catapulted into the air by Uranus's boost.

At first the camera started to follow her up, but soon realized it was futile to follow her. Her direction was quite apparent when she started to summersault, again wielding such a large weapon with such ease; she managed to right her orientation to face the robots just as the heels of her purple laced boots smashed the Plexiglas dome right in front of the camera's lenses and proceeded to catapult towards the robots. The impact caused a minor jump of static as the camera corrected for the almost surprising damage, but by the time the signal returned. They could barely see her make her second strike into the robots and then jump clear. The combination of the cracked glass and the slow movement of the camera resulted in them seeing Uranus jump out and make her second incantation attack of the evening and the first once to be seen on camera.

Because of the camera's delayed movements, it actually followed the beam to their impact on the pair of robots. The effect was almost surreal as they saw the robots literally disintegrate from the blast. What followed was epilogue, after the two senshi inspected their kills. They ran off and left them to burn to death. After that, the lead detective stopped the tape, the process would take all day and they had little time for after game commentary for each video. While he loaded the next video, the detectives had a brief moment to speak

"Wow…that was just…wow" Ayaka said, scribing down her notes about as fast as everyone else was.

"That was a really impressive fight right there" Minoru said "no reliance on magic either"

The detectives all calmed down as the next tape loaded

"Alright next tape…" Kenji started to speak "…is from light pole camera 3, third floor, Central section. Tape security code number 313-1 for the month of December 1997…"

* * *

_Author's Commentary: Like in the previous chapter, the second scene had some issues with writing straight dialogue without it coming across as too corny, but this was the first chapter I really didn't have many issues with in the reread, hopefully a sign of things to improve. This final scene was really interesting to write since I really wanted to address some of the popcorn logic in the entire series._


	6. Chapter 5: Deciding Factors

**Chapter 5: Deciding factors**

It had to happen, Ami knew that eventually she had to at least tell the others what was going on. She had to tell them what happened, and more importantly what her mother and she had talked about as well as what she had told her so far. At the same time, and unlike their outer senshi counterparts, her friends had Ami's wellbeing as a paramount subject of concern. So when Ami reported to them on the talk her mother and she had both just after they left and this morning, their reaction had been one of surprise. It had in fact been almost too hard to believe at first, her friends had even thought Ami was in a state of denial. But after explaining carefully the details of her first conversation, the other four signed off on Ami's story and their theory of her state of ashamed denial had dissipated.

"…So she was okay with it?" Usagi asked again

"I was surprised too" Ami replied before clarifying "But I don't really know what to say…she wasn't angry at all"

Having described her mother's reaction after the other three had left them to themselves, the other four in the room slumped back from their upright position. All of them were inside today around Rei's table, it was just too cold outside to sit on the veranda, as much as this conversation would've been more suited in semi-open air. With the deposition of the all important question out of the way, they proceeded to ask the details.

"And she said Mercury was her favorite too?" Makoto asked.

"Something along those lines….I thought she was just trying to cheer me up at first, but by this morning it felt she meant it" Ami replied "I don't know what to say about that…I didn't even think she followed them…us"

The other girls giggled at the last part, it was a mistake in speech for Ami that seemed fitting for the moment. Rei pondered over the debate and then made her think about it before asking the next question in this focus on Ami.

"So you're off the hook?" Rei asked

"I guess I am but…there is something weird about it" Ami answered quite suddenly, her answer had an immediate effect.

"How come?" Usagi asked in curiosity. Her attention had been focused on the fact that Ami's mother was entirely okay with them.

"I'm not sure I can think of the best words to describe it" Ami said, fooling nobody that she didn't have a vocabulary in Japanese and English three times greater than the other members of the room. It was not often that Ami was a loss for words however and they understood that despite her previous comments in the contrary, there was still a lingering doubt in the air. Minako who was the only other person to been there to see her mother's initial reaction, spoke for the group when she asked

"What did she say?"

Ami thought about it for a moment "It's not so much what she said, or how she said it…but how she felt when she said it"

At nearly the same time, all four of them asked the same question; what did that mean? Rei being the one to think of it first, asked first as well.

"What did she say this morning?"

"Well…it's kind of difficult to explain" Ami replied "When she went to bed last night….I felt so relieved that she wasn't angry with me…but this morning…it was just awkward"

The others all listened in, with Usagi not understanding – Makoto barely hanging on as well – as Ami started to explain to them the activities of this morning.

"It hadn't even come up until the news report this morning…but when we saw that, she finally did ask me some questions…" Ami started to explain, waiting for their approval. When Ami got four affirmative hums from her friends around the table, she continued "…but what felt strange was…I could talk about it"

Rei, Makoto and Minako thought about it for a moment, being the only three listening in who had so far kept up with Ami, Usagi had long lost track of what her friend was talking about, not that she wasn't trying. It was a strange thing to say, but then after a few second to think about it, they realized there was meaning in that. For Ami, who was so quiet and so uncomfortable explaining herself sometimes, for her to talk about something like the Senshi so easily to her own mother, it was an intangible feeling.

"So what did she ask first?" Rei curious at the kind of question she would've asked

"…the first thing she asked me was who the other senshi was…"

Again they all hummed approval, each of them reacting to the news in their head in their own way. Quite unlike the outer-senshi counterparts however, they were uniformly accepting, if Minako, Haruka, Hotaru and Ami had revealed their identity, there was little point in hiding the fact that virtually every one of Ami's friends also shared the same creed as a sailor senshi. Besides that, Ami's mother wasn't an enemy, was she?

"Something really funny happened actually" Ami said then explained "I realized that she was using the toy version of our names…so when I finished, she had actually thought I was forgetting some of the senshi…"

"Really?" Rei asked, she wanted to chuckle at the humor in that, but decided against it "…so what happened?"

"Well she wanted to know who Prince Moon and Sailor Moon Junior were"

"That…must've been interesting" Minako chuckled. Unlike her black-haired Miko counterpart, she wasn't really afraid of finding it humorous, despite the glare she was receiving from the opposite end of the table. It did however have the strange effect of making Ami more comfortable explaining it.

"Well I managed to clarify that prince moon was really tuxedo kamen…but she looked at me like I really didn't know what I was talking about…" Ami said, now chuckling briefly at her own situation. She had hoped the others would find it funny, and while Rei hadn't laughed, she was glad when Minako did.

"So what did she have to say about sailor moon junior?" Matako asked before the others got the chance "Was she shocked, surprised?"

"…We never got the chance" Ami said "her phone rang and she got called into work"

"Ouch" Rei said with some humor, delighted that now the ice had broken and humor had entered the conversation finally "And she was about to hear the good stuff too"

But all of them thought about it just like Ami had in the previous few hours, how do you explain Chibiusa? It wasn't like she could be summoned to explain herself, and even if she could, would it make the situation that much more explainable? While all of them came of to that logical conclusion, Minako had thought about someone else. Despite the somewhat awkward, but funny explanation for Chibiusa that would follow, there was still the other unexplainable character in their group. Last night Hotaru had said something she shouldn't have, even if she didn't mean it and Minako was sure that the young girl was getting it from all sides back at her own home.

"Did she ask about Hotaru again?"

"No" Ami answered "I think she was curious to know about us in general"

"She'll be hard to explain…" Rei started off, at once sucking out the fun the conversation had. That comment got everyone, not at the bluntness of Rei's words, but their truth.

"But she didn't push Hotaru to answer the question right?" Minako offered.

"No…she didn't" Ami realized "mom is like that though…she doesn't like making people feel obligated"

Despite that initial assurance, it was a topic that required carefully thinking before they came close to answering it. But before they dwelled too long on the topic, Usagi decided to bring it in a whole new direction, everyone had the look on their faces that they wanted to stop talking about this problem.

"So Ami…" Usagi started "How does it feel to be the only senshi to her parents know who she is?"

It was a good question and in a moment, the other three of them were wondering the same thing.

"It feels relieving…" Ami answered "…but I'm just glad that it's over"

"It's over?" Minako asked

"Well…" Ami started "the whole thing about telling her lies every time we have to go battle someone…I can just tell her the truth now"

They all thought about it, and upon reflection, it was a benefit in its own way. Because of that, there wasn't a single girl in the room who didn't actually envy her right now. As hard it was to believe, in that being the first, it also gave something of an example in what to expect when it eventually happened to them – they weren't idealists like their outer senshi counterparts – and they fully accepted it was inevitable. Further, that her mother had not in anyway felt outraged or a sense to reject her daughter had created something of an ideal outcome that the other girls could look at, but one by one, each of them tried to compare Ami's mother to their own, and the results were depressing. For two of them, it wasn't really a question they could answer – their mothers hadn't lived to see them become senshi –and for the other two, it was honestly a question that required some deep thinking.

"You've very lucky to have a mother like yours…" Minako spoke, surprising all with the comment

"How so?" Ami asked,

"Mine would never have taken it the same way…" Minako started to explain "…if she had been in the elevator with you and me, she would've panicked…not in control of herself…"

"She can't be that bad…" Rei commented, worried about what she was hearing

"She would be…she freaks out at me if I come home too late" Minako continued to explain with some humor "she has even told me how much she thinks of the senshi…she thinks were all some sort of gang that the police should arrest"

"Well…some would argue that's exactly what we are" Ami rebutted, but she was getting the same clear picture that Minako was describing

"But imagine if she finds out that her daughter…" to which Minako noted silently that she never really made the time to talk to anyway "...was the butt kicking goddess of love and beauty Sailor Venus? She'd reject me in a heartbeat and I would be out of the house and on the street before I finish transforming"

And that was one of two fears that Minako held deeply and the one she now envied that Ami would never have to go through; rejection. Worse, that it may involve psychical separation from the family and she still loved despite their flaws. For Ami to come through all of this was really something that she had wished for, but even for the goddess of love; she didn't think it was possible to get such a desired outcome.

"What about your dad…surely he'd understand"

"Dad would definitely be happy…but he wouldn't care about keeping it a secret for very long" Minako sunk her head down and started to explain why this was not the case "He's a stock broker after all…

As much as she feared rejection, Minako knew that deep down, that wasn't the worst of her two feared scenarios. Her mother wasn't the worst for her senseless ignorance, it was her father and his money hungry personality. a trait that his adult life as a salary man in the stock market had all but replaced his compassion with. With him, it wasn't rejection, rather betrayalm and she even knew how he'd do it. Her father would buy shares in every company that ever sold Sailor V and Sailor Senshi related merchandise, then come open to the public that his Daughter was a senshi. After the initial profit he made on the market, he'd go to court with the earnings and demand he be paid royalties for use of his daughter's image. It would be a landmark case in the courts and he'd become an instant millionaire from it.

"But it won't ever happen!" Minako laughed it off with the feeling that three years of living with the nightmare had created a sort of desensitizing to the whole affair "Not for as long as I'm careful…"

"…but if he does find out…at least you'll finally be famous" Rei sneered

"Hey!" Minako snapped back "I want to become famous from my pure talent!"

"What talent?

All around the table the other girls fell laughed at what felt like a critical moment for humor. Minako's discourse on her father's imaginary plan to sell her out was really the sort of thing that could make even Ami suddenly worried about her mother's resistance to temptation. The logical conclusion from such a thought was a simply wouldn't…would she? She hadn't thought about that and so Usagi who was thinking along the same lines. She didn't really think her parents were really as bad as her fellow blonde haired friend's, but she was the daughter of a magazine editor–

"My mother would be surprised" Usagi explained "I'm not quite what she'd find the most surprising…me being sailor moon or the talking cat that lives in my room, or that my cousin was really my daughter"

"I don't think those surprises will stack up against the biggest one of them all" Rei joked again "Passing all your exams this week is one that even us senshi are surprised about!"

Usagi poked her tongue, but didn't really offer much resistance to the irony, because it had been true. While unable to during the height of their activities, the prolonged absence had made the study sessions not only vital in keeping communication, but further, since the demise from full time senshi activates, Ami had used their newly discovered time to help the others out from the depths of fail grades and tutored them into the marginal passes that they labored to accomplish in the previous week's exam marathon. Usagi would never truly be thankful enough for her friend's help in how she had turned her around in her studies. When she first met Ami, Usagi's mother was the constant critic in her performance at school. But months, then years of tutoring had turned that around and made Usagi's mother change entirely on her attitude towards her daughter's studies. Usagi was far from perfect, but she stood at least on the right side of the passing grade now.

"Well…I think she might find Luna something to be surprised about…so many times I've caught mother talking to her like a normal cat…" Usagi explained before turning to Minako to ask "How did her mother react to Artemis?"

"She really didn't have the time to react…I think our transformations overshadowed that" Minako replied honestly.

Usagi thought about her dad now, he was really a different person to Minako's dad; he talked to her, commented on her wellbeing, worried about her, compassion from a father that she saw daily. But he was also a magazine editor, whom was in the very industry of tabloid journalism, so it might just be natural that he wouldn't pass up an opportunity like this, would he? But what was more important was not his job, but his appreciation of the senshi. Usagi knew well of his fascination with sailor moon and the senshi. At first he had wondered if it was really true at all and not some publicity stunt to sell toys. But upon his first look at Sailor Moon in person, it'd become an obsession of sorts and an on going quest to learn more about them. That gave Usagi at least some confidence in that while he had a journalist obligation to report on anything that sold, he would still come down on the side of fatherly compassion…she hoped.

"I can't ever think of him telling anyone" Usagi announced to everyone's surprise "…he's as big a fan of the senshi I know"

The others nodded at that and then wondered at something else and how it might've played a whole lot of difference between rejection and acceptance by Ami's mother. Where as Minako's mother had an outright disdain of the senshi to affect her own judgment – and thus remain the inherent constant of Minako's deepest fears – at the same time, Ami's mother, and Usagi's father were respectively an admirer and an enthusiast. Thus far it could be said that her admiration for the senshi and especially sailor Mercury, had a significant weigh in her mother's reaction to her daughter's startling secret.

"I really can't say what my parents would say" Makoto replied, feeling it was her turn to describe her feelings on the subject "I really don't know…"

That her parents had met their deaths long before she had become a tough, tall – and almost Yankee like personality – and as a result, they would never have known of their daughter becoming Sailor Jupiter. For them, the surprise would not have been in her secret identity, but her personality as a whole. Strong, tough, unflinching from danger, this from the little girl who had been afraid of rain and lighting, as ironic as that had been. Her only family now where the extended family who cared little for her, and what would their reaction be? To them, she was a borderline delinquent that only seemed to pass the high school entrance exams by divine providence. Makoto briefly fantasized how they would react, but there were the lingering consequences of those actions.

"My mother never would have told anyone…." Makoto announced before changing her tone "But her sisters sure would have in a heartbeat"

"I'm sure a little lighting will put them in order" Rei offered, she was quite aware of how much Makoto didn't like her relatives.

"Just much I'm sure a fire would set your dad straight" Makoto replied, also quite aware how similar Rei's problems were to her own.

Rei nodded, while she could identify straight away with Matako's situation of not really knowing what her mother thought of her, she also could identify with the situation that Minako had on her hands with her mother, as applied to her father's ambitious dislike of the Senshi. Worse than that, his disapproval had stretched so far as to make public political statements supporting the arrest and prosecution of the senshi for their acts of vigilantism. That his views were in the minority was no consolation for him siding with such a view in the first place, but Rei being of calm mind had judged it had simply been a consequence of his more popular and universally more acceptable tough stance on crime which included crackdowns on public disobedience, sterner laws on speeding drivers and underage drinking. But just how would he react to her daughter's biggest secret was really something she had worried about. Rei knew very little anymore of his true character and she had really avoided trying to learn.

"I don't think I'd have to set him on fire…" Rei simply offered "Given everything he has said about Sailor Mars…he would have a have a lot of compassion for me if he publicly changed his mind about us…"

And Rei simply didn't believe that. He was stubborn as politicians go, but it was not like he had much of a choice in the matter. If Rei came out the next day and admitted to the world that she was a senshi, he would sooner work to disassociate himself from her in an effort to avoid the political downfall that his opponents would try to bring, than change his mind on the debate. All around the table the other girls, including Minako had been afraid about what she was thinking. But Rei's answer shocked everyone

"But no…I don't think it's really fair to say he would hate me…it's just how he thinks" Rei explained "he hates crime in the same way we hated our enemy's attacks...I can understand that…I just wished he wasn't against us"

Everyone at the table knew of Takashi Hino, he was in the local paper just enough times for them to have at least read about his view on the senshi once. So it was no surprise that they were all in awe at their friend's and his daughter's almost sympathetic understanding of him. It had especially awed Minako, who had thought very little of her mother's own position on the matter and how maybe it wasn't really her own fault after all. It certainly was food for thought that she might talk about another time, but for now the subject was still about someone else's mother and her daughter who this whole time had remained quietly listening, feeling more grateful for her fortune in mothers.

"As I said Ami" Minako bringing the topic back to her "you are a very lucky girl"

And nobody could disagree; among their many problems relating such scenarios with their own parents, all of them felt that at least now; they had a symbol of that intangible goal of parental acceptance in the form of Dr Mizuno; the mother of Ami Mizuno for whom- she a was stern, but a loving parent…as well as being a secret fan of her daughter's alter-ego; Sailor Mercury.

The more Ami thought about it, the more she felt comfortable with it. She did have pangs of guilt that she was now free of scrutiny where her friends were not, but now she couldn't wait to talk to mother; she knew when she returned tonight, Ami would have many stories to tell.

* * *

At almost the same time, the other Mizuno had been thinking of the same general subject, but in a different light. She had long since gotten over the shock and surprise she knew; but her curiosities Saeko knew would continue for many weeks to follow. Secrets had stories she knew, and judging by the size, and the time it had been around, she was only starting to wonder at its depths. It had just been too bad that she couldn't sit down and get it all in one sitting with Ami or that she couldn't even get a single morning off to ask her more than the simplest of questions. Work was important she knew, but in the first time in very long time, her simple acceptance of the fact was marred by the events of the past day and their intrigue that itched at her like a rash.

And there wasn't much she could do to change that fact either, Saeko was limited in her ability to project will, both by her present rank in the hierarchy of staff and in the tight grip that the Administration department had over the remaining doctors. In the case of the former, there was really nothing she could do about that and as far as Saeko was concerned, she had topped out in her career as a doctor. As good a clinician she was, office politics – especially in this society – weighed heavily on her ability to be promoted. Her divorce, no matter how unrelated it was to her job, had put an end to any chance of becoming department head or higher and she had already been passed over once for the job of Deputy chief surgeon, a title that she had informally held among the clinical department doctors since her transfer from the Emergency Room to here.

This resulting limitation on her career path also gave the administration staff less to worry about Saeko, who otherwise might have risen to a position high enough to be able to demand time off from work. They could, without fear of future repercussions, bully her with constant roster changes and orders to stay back and take on extra work, all because of first, her personal inability to say no and second due to her professional obligation. It was a fairly fine line though, since Saeko did have friends in the senior staff, but rarely could those friends object to the junior ranking – thought in two cases, senior experienced – coworker. Generally as a result, Saeko took the work as it was and did her best to cope while pressure from the board came down on her and her small unit of coworkers.

Sitting in her office, Saeko was having a late lunch. It turned out that her arrival couldn't have been at a better time for the overworked staff, all evening it seemed the hospital had taken patients from the shopping mall to be treated for all manner of injuries and all morning her day had been keeping her residents in check and treating some cases herself. What she had learnt right away was that the battle – whatever it had been – it had been defeated by the senshi in quite a spectacular way. All morning she had patients describe to get how they first saw the big robot like monsters appear, then how in two acts, the senshi managed to beat them back and finish the job the critically injured security officers tried so valiantly tried to stop.

'Amazing' she thought every time while thinking each time that now she knew that her own daughter had been apart of the effort. It was a strange sensation that she couldn't relate to anyone. Not even the man sitting opposite her desk.

"I'm surprised you didn't get to see anything" Hiroyoshi chuckled "you are after were a fan of the senshi at one point weren't you?"

"And I still am Hiro-san" Saeko said with the same amount of humor "just my luck I guess…but I did get to spend quality time with my daughter"

She'd already thanked the man enough times for his graceful generosity, doing more would only patronize him more than was deserved. He had even said that he had been glad to help.

"I don't think sitting in a dark elevator with her best friend counts" Hiro replied in kind "…at least it's not really my idea of quality time my daughters"

"Well, it was better than not seeing her at all I guess…" Saeko answered, That Saeko spent less that five minutes with them before they transformed into the senshi was beside the point. She had mentioned the whole affair since she could not lie about being there at all and after all, had it not been the reason he had come to her rescue and gave her the ability to do so in the first place?

"True" Hiroyoshi replied kindly

"Speaking of which, how are your daughters?" Saeko decided to ask

"They're fine, they are on holidays now and they just can't wait for the snow to fall" Hiro answered as he slipped from his bottle of tea. Even thought they were doctors, both of them had to submit to the absence of the civility in drinking from the bottle, not that anyone on the staff cared, they barely had enough break time for lunch as it was. Saeko saw the smile of his counterpart as he reminiscing about what his family, his daughters were still of the age to find such entertainment in snow that adults merely saw as a nuisance.

"It must be nice to still have them that young"

"It is…" Hiroyoshi said proudly before reflecting "It's just a shame I rarely get to see them these days…and I suppose to pick them up from their sleepover this morning, too but…"

When his shift ended at 6am, he was quite exhausted from a literal double shift and the added pressure of the post-attack chaos that brought his hospital wards into action. Even after calling in extra help, he'd remained the center man for the entire operation until his shift was relieved by Ryosuke in the morning. In the end, his exhaustion was getting the better of him and the man he relieved refused him leave until he got at least four hours shuteye in the resident's lounge. Now rested, he would be forced to stay on another three hour shift before he got to go home.

"Hiro-san, you needed your sleep, you covered everyone by taking Hatori-san's shift" Saeko interrupted with concern in her voice. He shook his head in recognition

"I know …" he replied with reluctance " I called up my sister and asked if she could detain them a little longer…Aoi seemed to understand"

Saeko nodded, feeling for the man sitting across from her. His circumstances were oddly familiar to hers, but where her marriage had gone awry because of their differences, Hiroyoshi Reed's had simply ended despite the many attempts to make it work for his daughters. Their mother was like Ami's father, but where he had been an artist felt cooped up inside; Hiroyoshi's wife had simply been selfish woman, concerned more about her career in the entertainment industry, not that she had been any good at it. The other stark difference between them was simply her husband had been a great artist, Hiroyoshi's wife was simply a woman following an unfeasible dream.

"So what are your plans for Christmas" Saeko asked "you haven't told me yet?"

"I haven't?" Hiroyoshi replied before continuing "Well…Aoi and I were thinking of taking the girls to the amusement park"

"That's nice" Saeko asked "do you have the day off?"

"…first thing I did this month" Hiroyoshi answered proudly "was make sure I have it on the roster…but who knows what will come up…"

"Don't be so negative" Saeko replied with some humor "they have to give it to someone after all, you should get it…last year you spent it here"

"And so did you if I recall..." Hiroyoshi replied kindly "…in fact, when was the last time you had Christmas day off?"

"I think three years ago…" Saeko sighed

"Really, three years?" Hiroyoshi was surprised, now feeling sorry that this year would be her fourth year in a row, he had seen the roster.

"Well, I tried to for this year…but...Ami understands the routine…it's just as important that I be here…" Saeko's tone dropped with every word, Hiroyoshi simply listened.

It was true that the laws of reality forbad everyone talking a holiday at the same time. Even if there were no patients to take care of, the possibility of one coming in on Christmas day from any manner of accidents overrode the day of doctors, residents and interns. But what Hiroyoshi couldn't agree with was the fact that Saeko felt like she couldn't justify the time anymore, with the staff shortage, combined with her hardened reputation made too many rely on her. Her work ethic aside, she was coming close to burning out as she had been in her many years at the hospital.

"It's a lot harder to think of spending time with your daughter when she is already 17…" Saeko closed her eyes and pinched the bridge between them, feeling another headache coming "I've just been unable to find the time…"

"Well, you know what they always say" Hiroyoshi said with some charming wisdom "You need to make time for the things that are important to you"

She smiled again. Every now and then, fellow doctors needed friends they could be frank with, and it seemed to him that she needed someone to talk to about this, or at least offer some friendly advice.

"I know…" Saeko replied "But with all the things going on here…I can't possibly leave"

"That's true" he admitted with disarming honesty, as much as gesture had been, it couldn't overcome her brutal self-honesty and work ethic. "But when was the last time you have taken a day off?"

"Yesterday?"

"…Where you didn't have to spend half your day covering for someone here" Hiroyoshi modified his question

Saeko tried to answer, but failed to. It wasn't she didn't have a day off, it was simply put she didn't know where in the last year she actually had been home the whole day or at least not at work. Hiroyoshi could see it on her eyes, and further, he knew that in his entire tenure at the hospital, Saeko hadn't ever taken a day off or a sick day, she was the miracle worker after all, but It didn't mean the miracle worker couldn't be human as well. She had taken holidays to be sure, but even then, they had been working vacations, going to conferences and representing her hospital at various functions.

"So what are the plans for Christmas for her when you're not around?" he asked just out of curiosity

"Usually my mother comes for new years and she keeps Ami company, but this year…" Seako replied "I'm not sure what this year will be like…I tried to convince her to stay with friends, but she refuses to burden them… and they are all too busy this year as well…"

"Sounds like you and her have something in common" Hiroyoshi commented wryly

"She is my daughter…" Saeko smiled at the remark, knowing how that was really meant to somehow describe her.

"You know…one of these days it's going to come back at you" Hiroyoshi said as he started to collect his trash, ready to return to work now that he filled up on cafeteria sandwiches and bottled tea "If you keep missing out on these moments with your daughter…your going to be wonder one day what parts of her life she has kept from you"

And that struck home so hardm that Saeko almost chocked. The doctor had been almost surprised to see the comment having so much effectiveness that he'd briefly worried about the possibility that she had swallowed her lunch the wrong way just then. But a gulp from her bottle of water settled that mini-emergency and in a moment, she was right again. But before the male doctor could ask if she was alright, the office door was knocked on.

"Come in" She spoke first, looking up at her associate and eying with him not to say a word.

"Doctor Mizuno-sensei" an intern spoke, "I have a message from you"

"Thank you…" she collected the slip from her assistants hand and read its message.

It wasn't a good message he could tell as her eyes slowly closed and she dismissed her aide with the same depressing tone she ascribed bad news to.

"Roster change?" he asked

"They need me to stay back another three hours later…" Saeko replied "I guess since we called in so many people last night, we're short of a full crew…"

"Do you need me to…" Hiroyoshi started to offer, but was firmly rejected

"No!" she firmly commanded "You've been here long enough Hiro-san…go home and see your daughters already…while they are still young enough to enjoy snow"

He chuckled, "Very well I shall...shall I give regards to Aoi?"

"Please do…" Saeko smiled again, "have a rest…Hiro-san and enjoy your Christmas…"

"you too…if not on Christmas…at least soon"

With that Hiroyoshi left her office and Saeko with something new to think about. Briefly she came back to the statement she almost chocked on and how true it had been when compared to the greater reality of the fact of last night's starting reveal. Three years Ami had operated as a senshi under her nose, not that it had been too hard to when she was never there. But apart from that secret, what else did Ami have that Saeko didn't know about. It was food for thought as Saeko braced to call home again and delay the resumption of their conversation from this morning.

* * *

"This next tape is from light pole camera 9, second floor, Central section. Tape security code number 219-1 for the month of December 1997"

The detectives dutifully wrote down the numbers and details and waited for the tape to begin. It was the one of several cameras in this section that worked after the explosion. Like the other 8 tapes they had seen before; it started at just before the attack, showing to everyone a 'before the battle' scene of Friday night at the super center. Then from above the showed just before the portals that witnesses had so far talked about and more again they saw those robots fall from the sky and onto the garden below. The usual initial confusion and chaos followed. For close to five minutes, all they saw was a platoon sized group of these robot monster things tearing up the ground and shooting at whatever they saw. Security cameras being blown out and all kinds of damage occur.

But this time, the camera saw the first appearance of senshi on screen, coming out of nowhere, the senshi seemed to be more than surprised when the first wave of shots came at them.

"There are two more of them…" one of their number noted "So now we're up to four senshi" he got affirmative grunts all around.

"Still…no Sailor moon" Minoru said interested

They continued to watch the battle, after a fruitless attempt to close the distance between their attackers and themselves, they bunkered down to rethink their plans. It was a bad call, minutes later they became targets again, but just before the detectives thought the two senshi were goners, divine providence from above came and saved them. Leaping from the third story, the two senshi they were just watching arrived on the scene just in time to save their counterparts from certain critical injury.

"Wow…that had to hurt…" minoru said as he saw two of them smash through the cake shop window "do you have that tape on hand?"

"One moment" Kenji said before pausing the video.

Again it was not really apart of the procedure, but it had been decided that they would piece together the video tapes that showed something important enough, they would look at it. Again. Kenji switched the projector's remote to pick up the second VCR on the stack and he put in the VHS tape labeled S1032 12/97 and pressed play. When the time stamp hit the right approximate time, the projector stopped its fast forward and resumed playing. For a moment nothing happened and but at exactly a few moments after timestamp indicated by the previous video, the two senshi showed up and made an abrupt entrance through the right window of the store. Just they had seen Saturn do almost four hours ago. they saw them smacking into not only the window but destroying part of the counter and the displays in the window that had cakes there for potential sale. Rolling onto the center of the floor, their bodies, like Saturn, remained still for a moment.

"Ouch…" the third senior detective spoke "and that's Venus right there…I thought it was Mars for a second…"

"What are you stupid?" Minoru chuckled "Mars has black hair…that's blonde"

The group laughed. This job sometimes was just like being a movie critic, and it afforded them their ability to be humorous to each other. Having watched over two years of progress among the growing number of senshi; things like identifying distinguishable traits among senshi was one of the few trivial things that they could occasionally get wrong. They were by nerd standards, the trivial wizards on the subject of the senshi; they had become accustomed with the attacks and the combat style, the poses, the type of things they would say. They even all had one or two personal favorites.

Notarizing on the pads now that the third senshi was indeed Venus, the group continued to watch the video. Despite the impact, the two of them eventually got up and in a matter of moments, were standing by the door and looking across to the other Senshi. Kenji stopped the video there and hit the remote back to the original channel he had it on. The video still paused on the cake shop, he played it again. The camera didn't seem to try zoom in on the group at the cake store, rather try to look at the other two that landed on the opposite side of the hallway. They couldn't make out the fourth and final member at first, but she was starting to gesture like Uranus did before.

Despite not seeing, Ayaka asked anyway "Who is that fourth senshi?"

"It's Mercury" minoru answered simply, he only needed a glance to tell.

"No way!" the third detective said "that's got to be someone else"

"Hey…who else has short hair like that?" Minoru replied back "…Saturn is standing right next to her, and Uranus is with Venus...so that has got to be Mercury"

"Guess your right" the third detective said, he didn't make a point of debating with Minoru when it came to this subject. He was also supposedly a fan of the two senshi on screen.

The gesturing stopped for awhile and then they disappeared around the corner. The camera finally panned to the left while zooming out and stopped when it was dead center, the perfect view of the attack about to come. For the fourth time today, they saw the second act of the battle, but this was the first angle in which the senshi were visable the entire time. They saw their second incantation caught on tape as Mercury unleashed a mist attack, proving to both the detective and the others who it was.

What followed was hard to describe, but having seen it three times from different angle, it still hadn't lost its awe as. The action seemed almost like a ballet, but the entire action was unbelievably well timed that when it was all over, the detective's opinion of the senshi was of only awe. They had been covering them for the entire time they were around, and even right now, with seeing some of the crazy things before, they knew this attack was really something really special. The screen went blue, indicating the VHS tape was stopped and then the projector screen went dark. The lights turned on and Kenji started speaking.

"Well, that's pretty much it, most of the footage today" Kenji replied "This covers most of what we need to go over in the initial report anyway"

The group of six nodded to each other and started to review their notes and then once they had read everything checked, started to ask their questions.

"Well, just so we have it straight, we saw four senshi…Uranus, Saturn, Venus and Mercury…and there were at least twelve enemy robots and witnesses say one man as their leader" Minoru said, counting off for his associates the numbers "all the robots were taken out and the leader apparently disappeared…so I would have to say the guy retreated like the usually do"

Everyone nodded, not doubting the figures since they had pretty much the same. They wouldn't be sure about the last part until tomorrow morning they knew, but it was a pretty safe assumption, not that anything had seen so far seemed to keep within the paradigm of a typical senshi battle.

"Now, what the hell was the attack really all about?" Minoru continued "I really saw no motive, nobody was taken hostage, nothing stolen…and this was really kind of different from before"

"Yeah, usually is some quiet abduction ring or individual assaults, this wasn't either" Kenji replied "Just punks looking for trouble?"

"Do you think they were just there to look for the senshi?" Ayaka asked

"What? draw them out? What the hell for?" the third detective replied "their enemies don't work like that, they all usually have some motive to be there in the first place….and they always turn tail when senshi show up"

"Well they didn't this time" Ayaka replied "and their numbers were far more than any previous attack I saw…and if you were going in with disposable forces with no motive, then what's the whole point of fighting?"

She did have a point they all had to admit it. This attack had a lot of firsts in it, first time Sailor moon didn't show up at all, first time they saw the senshi in over eighteen months, first time the enemy brought a force something approaching intimidating and this was for sure the first time they'd seen the enemy attack with such ferocity in such a public place. It wasn't the same paradigm of previous experiences; obviously something new had happened to change the rules so much. But what made this battle really unique so far was it didn't follow a pattern of abductions and covert attacks; they're maiden attack had been so much of a radical departure from the norm.

"Could be they just to get them out of the way first" Minoru offered, moderating the two from their respective arguments.

Before anyone could come to logical conclusion of this certain argument, they heard the loud knocking of the door.

"Inspector Aoyama?" spoke a young woman's voice on the other side

"Come in" Kenji replied

In a moment, the door opened a youngish looking constable entered the room behind a trolley with three boxes on it.

"What is all this?" Minoru asked, not quite pleased to be interrupted, but he couldn't really blame the officer for her transgression.

"Headquarters just send me with these boxes of tapes; they said they wanted a copy for storage soon as possible"

"What?" kenji asked "your kidding right?"

"Hey!" the young woman put up her hands in mock surrender "I'm just the messenger girl"

Kenji being the responsible civil officer in charge of the investigation team picked up the clipboard on the top and read its contents, it was pretty standard gibberish for office paperwork and he detested that among other things. But the orders pretty clear about it and left no room for doubt that this would derail their entire day while they used the copy machine to duplicate every single tape. It would've made more sense is if the tapes had been duplicated first before he started his work, but it being less than a day since the attack, it was quite plausible that this couldn't have been accomplished anyway. Despite this, considering the scale of the attack and the apparent velocity, It must've caused headquarters to rethink initial plans and to order the hurry up.

But it meant was a pause on their part of the investigation while they went through the whole ordeal of doing this. The problem was that they had not one tape, or a dozen, but at least six dozen tapes from multiple angles, different shops…all varying in quality, length and importance.

It wouldn't just take a few hours to complete either, and they only had the several copier VCRs to work with, and even if they ordered another few from headquarters–

"Fine…" Kenji picked up the form to sign it, annoyed that this now had to take priority, his superintendant would understand, maybe. The woman saluted her senior and left with the clipboard. Kenji wheeled the trolley with the tape boxes next to their display system and left them there, that task completed he turned to his staff

"Alright…Minoru, Ayaka, start working up a formal initial report for the superintendent…like it or not we're going to have to shelve this film festival for the moment and get this done…but I want to at least have a report for the man upstairs by the time we head home"

"Right chief" Minoru understood the disappointment, the videos had been quite exciting to watch for a change.

Kenki turned to the other two "You two start grabbing tapes"

Despite his annoyance at the task ahead, he was a diligent man and opened up the first box on top. That the tapes had never come from headquarters at all and the woman that he had just signed the clipboard for had never been in the Tokyo metropolitan police service would be facts that nobody would ever learn.

* * *

Their meeting broke up at around three before they decided to get their other chores down for the day. In the case for Ami it had been to buy some much needed groceries for their depleted kitchen. Having a list in hand longer her wallet, Ami managed to buy everything they needed for the next week and pay for it all with cash to spare. The prices at this time of the year were pretty hard to guess at – they always rose higher for the holidays – but if you were smart, you could still come out on top. Makoto had come with her and they had talked about other matters while avoiding the more tentative subject that they had both worn down to a stump by the time they left the Hino shrine though Ami was actually looking forward to coming home, and she had even invited Makoto since she was still asking for help on her English and history assignments.

She had passed the exam for sure, but she had not passed the subjects quite yet. All the while impressive on its own for Makoto to be so motivated, Ami knew that her friend had a real niche rational for improving her grades. The previous summer, her aunt had commented that the only place she could possibly work was in construction given her grades, which had been fairly average throughout her education so far. But with the impending university entrance exams looming upon her, the Kino Family had not believed she was up to the task of even applying for a third or fourth-rate University in Tokyo. That challenging a girl who's senshi motto had been to never give up was their misfortune and while they would not be completely impressed by the exam results from this round, they would be at least be surprised to learn that she 'still had game' as the English…or at least Americans said.

"So do you think she'll be home early?"

"I don't know" Ami replied "But I wouldn't hold your breath"

Despite the miracle that she pulled off the previous day, Ami had resigned to the fact that it was just impossible for her to come home on time more than twice a week. Even with the motivation to come home now, Ami knew her mother couldn't guarantee it, not that she really could fault her for it. The obligation to her line of work had long superseded her own personal obligations for years, so there was really no surprise that nothing would change, even if she was a senshi.

Ami and Makoto entered the lobby of the apartment complex. She had been actually glad that friend had come along since the long walk from the grocery store to home was pushing her capacity to carry so many bags. After a brief check for mail and a wait for the lift, the two of them were now on the final stretch walking to her door. After a brief offloading of groceries, Ami unlocked the door and entered.

"I'm home!"

Nothing. Well, at least it was back to usual in one other way. Ami returned to collect the groceries Makoto had volunteered to carry for a minute and walked in the door. After the two girls exchanged shoes for slippers, the two turned the corner into the kitchen to start unloading the bags.

"I guess she isn't home" Makoto said not too wryly,

"No…if she wasn't she would" Ami turned to face the phone, and sure enough, on the wall, the little blinking light beckoned a message to be heard. Ami decided for the moment to ignore the little red light and stock the fridge.

"Where do these go?" Matako held up a bag of onions

Ami took them off her hands and lodged them best she could into the vegetable crisper, then turned to get the milk and other cold foods from the bag she was carrying. The work of the two teenage girls meant that the job was accomplished a lot quicker and soon enough Ami returned her attention to the answering machine.

"One recorded message" the computer said before the voice again changed "Hello Ami …I guess its no surprise but I'm going to be back for a few hours…I'll be home as soon as I can be"

The audience of two listened to the message, Makoto surprised at the hectic sounding mother and Ami depressed as always hearing another reason why she couldn't make it home. Ami deleted the message in short order and turned her attention to her friend who merely stood there while observing her friend's almost daily routine with the phone.

"Well, lets get to work!"

Makoto wondered if she should say anything, but at least for the moment ignored her thoughts and followed Ami to her room. The two of them sat down, Makoto on her bed while Ami picked her chair by the desk, really only there to pick up her high school text book. When she finally founded it, Makoto finally figured out what she wanted to ask

"Ami, what does 'a few hours' usually mean?"

"Huh?" Ami paused before thinking back to the most recent moment she heard that "Oh…I wouldn't worry about it...usually it means she will be back in three or four hours"

"Nine or ten at night…" Makoto said as she looked at her watched.

"It's not the worst" Ami replied to her friend's predetermined next question "Sometimes she has to take over a shift, or cover for someone, or there is a heavy load in the Emergency room…it really depends"

"So…she could be home by nine at the earliest?"

"Doctors work weird hours all the time" Ami assured her "anyway, let's get to work shall we"

Makoto shrugged to the inevitable, she had been looking for a reason to stay on topic, but keeping Ami from doing what she promised to help her with would have felt petty. But when all was said and done, Makoto had already agreed to make restaurant quality Okonomiyaki for her and her mother if she came home on time. Ami understood her compassion, but felt that despite her fervent hopes, Makoto would not see or speak with her mother, at least for tonight, for tonight was just like all other nights.

* * *

_Author's Commentary: This first scene is probably the first of many times where I feel i've taken some liberty in certain details about the Sailor Moon universe, but I wouldn't quickly dismiss this as 'didn't do the research'. I did, and in the age of Google, Wikipedia and even Tv-Tropes, it's quite impossible to not include the write facts._

_One subplot I guess that sort of invented after the initial draft was Saeko's interaction with people at work, I had always envisioned another character for her to talk to, but I never really envisioned the idea would set up so much for later on in the story._


	7. Chapter 6: Calm before chaos

Chapter 6: Calm Before Chaos

Sitting around the table again, the general conferred his attention to inspecting the looks he was getting from his other colonels. An hour ago they had been all summoned to a meeting when the Intelligence officer had conferred he had a battle plan in place for his general. Now sitting here, the General could see at least one the faces of the warrior colonels that showed resentment in the tactics employed by Azrael and Vita had not abated yet. That they had so far done very well with converting the information collected by the late Achen, but that had been beside the point they were presently being resented for.

"So what have you found" the general's low tone started the conference.

"We have located the tapes" Azrael started to explain "it had taken us most of the day to determine the process that the local authorities use to process their information, and after that, it had been a rather simple process of locating the tapes"

"And you're certain these are the ones?" the general explained

"Yes" the colonel explained "they are currently in a room inside one their local forts…police stations they call them"

The others all shifted uncomfortably at learning this, what they had done to learn such information was worrying and educed further thoughts of how the general did not stop them from risking so much for what felt like very little in the way of obtained information. The general for once had agreed with them and his next question was directed at his intelligence officer with a tone of displeasure

"And in your quest to learn this, how did you weight the risks that your actions would have you captured?"

"General" Azrael started to answer "if you have researched your enemy like I have, you can do anything to them without them thinking twice of it…even make them help us buy time"

"And how did you accomplish this?" The general asked

Azrael simply nodded to his subordinate and student to explain her flawless act. She after all was the more appealing of the two and her acting skills were her paramount ability after her coaching by her teacher. Vita proceeded to describe her action. She at first had appeared in an alley way almost two blocks down from the station and she simply wheeled in her delivery past the two police officers out front who did not question her uniform and therefore didn't question her package. As trained by her teacher, she acted confused, but not too dumb, when at the lobby desk she had told the duty sergeant that she had just come from headquarters to delivery some special VHS cassettes for the investigation.

Upon being offered the relief of taking the tapes off her hands, she flatly denied it, citing that she had to have the inspector in charge sign the papers. Again being a paperwork run agency, the sergeant nodded in approval and pointed her in the right direction. Along the way she quite purposely got lost, heading towards the police computer servers room on the other side of the building. After being lightly corrected by another sergeant who had the duty in this part of the building, she was pointed in the right direction towards the investigations section. One more floor down and a brief stop to memorize her location, she arrived to meet inspector's section chief who directed her to inspector Aoyama in the room where they were watching films from the previous evening's attack.

That accomplished, she left the building by walking into an empty ladies bathroom and teleporting out. In the space of twenty minutes, she had completed both her objectives, first in locating the computer server room – which had become one step in Azrael's battle plan – and second had been simply to plant the tapes where they would emitting a signal so that the future attack party would have a beacon to know where to go. In an unfamiliar labyrinth such as the one Vita experienced in walking around the building, just locating one room would near impossible for the attack party if they weren't at least given some sort of clue to follow.

Which was really what those tapes were suppose to do in addtion to their primary objective of both delaying the tape's departure to another location for storage and to obtain a copy for themselves.

"Very…Impressive" the general spoke upon hearing the end of the discourse

The others didn't all share the same sentiment, it had been foolish, risky, and many felt it purposeless, had the footage obtained by their slain associate been a wasted effort? No colonel felt more displeased with this than Denisa, who had been the only one who knew of what the two were doing. It was reckless, to stroll into the stronghold of their enemy and to risk capture or aimless death for information. But none the less the general was aiding this pompous old man and his student by letting off such a risky and objectively hypocritical move without punishment. Drawing the senshi out and killing them amass with outweighing odds against them was her idea of attack, not being a coward about it and trying to find a less likely measure that caught them napping.

But as the battle with Achen proved, merely fighting with brute force had not sold the general and he was looking for better options.

"General, time is against us I'm afraid to say" Azrael started to speak "this action merely delays the authority moving the tapes, once they have been moved, mere theatrics will not obtain the information I need for your mission"

"So what is your proposal?"

"40 auto-troops in two attack parties…"

"Impossible!" Denisa objected straight away "Why would you need so many auto-troops to recover your precious tapes?"

Even the general deemed the number excessive, an attack party of 12 auto-troops made more sense rather simply because all attacks were measured by the dozen. He wanted reason to spare so many of his numbers to aid in a plan that seemed to only drain resources from his attack force for when they did confront the senshi head on again.

"Colonel, you jest like a warrior who cannot lead" the general spoke harshly "Why 40?"

"General" Azrael spoke "we are as you would say...entering the breach of a battle that requires us to recover important information…further that there are two objectives which will split our forces into two groups to recover what we want"

"Against mere civilians?" Denisa protested "I saw the orb video; a mere 10 will do…"

"And if you saw that video, it's not the authorities I'm worried about" Azrael sharply replied "While I'm sure our troops can stand a better than fair fight with any weapon that this stronghold might have, it's the senshi that are not to be underestimated"

Which was why the numbers were so excessive, before they even got to their destination, fought their way to the respective sites and then pulled out for extraction, it would be long enough for any senshi forces to arrive, fight the hordes and maybe, maybe capture or kill one of the teams. Doing it with a mere platoon was not reasonable and the intelligence officer was indeed an inexperienced warrior, relativity speaking to his other skills. But he was also one who didn't loose sight of his objective, and his measurement of the numbers of what he needed translated to measurement of time bought that their lives would buy while retrieving the right data. In objectivist terms; his stratagem was poor, it did indeed throw away forces they needed for later missions, but at same time, the eventual goal wouldn't need so many auto-troops would it?

"What do we gain from this?" Denisa asked "more information to feed you…enough is enough…"

"Colonel, would you prefer to just go in with large numbers again to some random location and try kill a senshi with amass?" Azrael protested

"Rather then waste our resources on a needless task!"

"And they would be truly wasted if you fought your way!"

"Enough!" the general's voice boomed across the table "you are colonels, act like them…not pestilent children"

The room went silent, waiting for their leader to make a decision. The objectivist colonels all felt it was their turn to see this intelligence officer be set in his place for his crazy schemes. He wasn't the warrior going out to fight for this stuff he and that student of his craved, despite his hidden invitation to lead the attack parties. They saw his logic – by just the inclination of their own wits –that if he pulled it off, the information they got would allow them to ambush the senshi where they lived, but wasn't the point of the footage of the first attack party?

"Colonel…As you mentioned to me before, the information is critical to the mission" the general pronounced "and your statement is true about the need for added forces in light of the senshi's enhanced powers…however…"

"However?"

"Your force requirements are far in excess to what we can spare for so early a mission" the general "You will take no more than 30 auto-troops, and Denisa will accompany you"

Azrael simply nodded, recognizing that the general had recalculated the force requirements for fighting, and for added measure decided to throw his most lethal subordinate into the fray to assist him. Denisa didn't take the same amount of judgment to it and her protest was heard

"General…you're letting him…" she almost yelled

"…Colonel the opportunity to learn the identity of a senshi with this information is one we cannot afford to let slip away…with more appropriate force structures and you to take Vita's place…this battle plan has my blessing"

"And why me colonel?"

The real reason was risk reduction, his conversation about the brilliant talent of Azrael's student had come to mind during the deliberating of the argument before him. Sending his only two really skilled intelligence experts into the battle with the possibility of them both dying was one he didn't look kindly upon. He would've sent Vita, but only Azrael it seemed knew what to look for when in the heat of battle. Risking the greater of the two experts was something that he couldn't really accept either, but he also felt that if Azrael didn't prove himself on the battlefield soon, he might run the risk of revolt among the colonels.

"Because I want to also assure that the mission is successful, Azrael can take care of himself…and so can you colonel…I want no failure from both of you"

Azreal nodded in acceptance, he couldn't bear to think of what she would do in retrieving data, but was sure that she would avoid damaging if only to avoid attenuating her value to the general. Denisa knew that as well, and accepted it without much more argument

"It will be as you say, General"

* * *

Saeko was a little depressed to learn of the absence of her daughter. When she woke up this morning after arriving home at a late forsaken hour, Ami had long since gone out for the day. Well it was no surprise really, Ami had a life too and it said so on the wall, she had written on the message board that she had to go see Usagi to study. Previously, Saeko would've shrugged that off that as Ami trying to help her friend get better grades, but now the message was something she wondered at with some curiosity, pondering how much substance was there to it. She would've been surprised to learn she was right, but maybe even more surprised that Ami wrote it down out of habit.

She had gone to talk to Usagi about the attack, which only now was being analyzed by the entire senshi, Luna had apparently spoken with the other senshi the previous day and had come back to convey messages to them both. Since nobody was really in the mood to talk about this via communicator, they decided to meet up in person.

"Well…I guess that means I'm going to have breakfast for one" Saeko spoke aloud as she entered the kitchen.

Her first instinct was to check the fridge always, surprised to learn that her daughter had accomplished the simple task of buying the groceries, even more surprising was the plastic glad-wrapped dish on the top shelf with a sticky note on top. Pulling it out, Saeko was surprised to note that it was Okonomiyaki and as the note read, it was courtesy of Ami's friend Makoto. Ami apparently had visitors last night, maybe with the real objective to see her since. With her appreciation for the pancake treat now providing an easy breakfast, Saeko put it in the microwave and followed the instructions to reheat the food, in about five minutes, she was at the bench eating the meal and back to her previous thoughts of the morning, looking at the message board as a reminder.

What kept coming back to her was what her associate Hiroyoshi had said the previous day, at how prolonged absence would make Ami less open about her life, and it had been true hadn't it? After all she hadn't really been home for daughter over the past several years, so what influence did she have to stop Ami keeping things from her? And what bigger surprise was there than she had now learnt? Finally after all that, why didn't Ami just write the truth on the board now?

Maybe it was just habit for her to keep things secret. Saeko could believe that just as much as Ami would of her mother's habitual inability to come home at a decent hour. So despite it all, she still kept secrets, well that was no surprise really was it? At least on the surface that's what it felt like, it was dawning on her now that Ami's habit of lying about her whereabouts might only be the tip of the iceberg in terms of lies. She had been rather open about her explanation of the senshi and correcting her on the subject of the two mislabeled names, though she still had yet to for the one known as for Sailor Moon Junior.

When it came down to it, Ami had lied before to her face when confronted with questions countless times. But at what point would she say couldn't answer, or worse let, try to pass another lie off like she did that night at the toy store, though to be fair, it had been before she had found out that her daughter was really the real life incantation of the person the doll represented. What possible reply could she give to her mother when confronted with that sort of situation? Denial would've sounded weaker than the half-feted reply she gave, and she had almost convinced Saeko it as a simple guilt in liking something so childish.

But instead, Ami was a senshi, so her denial was not so much a objective denial of her own likes and dislikes, rather it had been a topic hitting to close to home for her. But that all became obsolete a few minutes later when she had no choice but to admit to something she had just denied and then further that with admitting a deeper truth to it. So now Ami was known to Saeko as not only her daughter; but as a senshi and not just any senshi; it had to the one she had followed since their first appearance, Sailor Mercury. The aftermath of the whole affair had now felt like a trivial exercise, first being backed by no less than three of her companions and a talking cat and after that, being left with her charge to explain everything else the next morning.

And despite Ami's assurance she wanted to talk about it more, she wasn't here. Instead as it said on the board, Ami had gone off early and discretely to talk to her friends. Again to be fair, it must've not been her fault but what possible reason did she have to see her friend now?

'Senshi-related business' Saeko thought as she finished off the last of her well made, but taste devalued Okonomiyaki, that the Microwave had zapped of taste. Saeko stood up and walked to the sink to wash the dish, one plate didn't justify the dishwasher and in a minute she had it drying on the rack while she walked out of the kitchen and back to her room. For the moment Saeko had really nothing to do, odd as it was and her next coherent thought went back to the meal she had just eaten. Okonomiyaki was not something you ate before midday she knew, but experience told her that cooked food should be eaten as soon as possible, not left to rot. The little message left on the top had been from her friend Makoto, whom Ami had told her many times how good a cook she was. That she didn't get to enjoy it hot was just her misfortune.

Again another curiosity dawned on her, Makoto had obviously expected to see her, which in itself was no surprise when you considered that she too was a senshi, probably wanting to meet the only person who knew of them and wasn't one herself. Ami had written on the board as a memo when she got home, that Makoto had come to work on her assignments with her, so why make me a meal as well? In any case, if Makoto could come over to talk 'business' with Ami, why couldn't Usagi do the same as well rather than vice versa. It was a selfish thought she admitted a moment later, but it made her wonder about the reasons, the first that came to her mind was that the other senshi didn't want her in the loop on everything. Despite what Ami thought, there were probably things they didn't feel she had to know as well.

So more secrets and lies were being told and Saeko could only ponder like a bored mother, while she found herself in a stark situation with nothing to do for at least the next few hours before she left for work. Originally she was suppose to be working the morning shift from eight but the designated sleep time rule had negated her being assigned for work right now, instead she had her roster swapped out again for this evening again, which once again negated her time with her daughter.

She slumped to the enviable and decided that if she was to make use of her free time, Saeko should at least do so after she cleansed herself of the bath she neglected to take prior to breakfast this morning. She did have chores to do of course and even if she wanted to spend time home with her now absent daughter, she still had errands to do. The bills didn't pay themselves.

* * *

Despite the willing submission to being replaced by Denisa on the mission she was to follow, Vita had still felt that it was unfair that her teacher had to work with such distrust by the other colonels. It wasn't meant to be patronizing he knew, but her respect for him had been really the best kind of loyalty. But despite the efforts of her own protesting, nothing would change the plans set. Confiding with his student, he gently reminded her of the ethos that they had signed onto. As servants of that ethos, they're loyalty was not to a single person, no matter how well known he or she was, but to the greater objective. People were replaceable compared to the only constant among their movemet, and that was the fate of the now fledgling kingdom. It was something that their general deemed vital to restore, and that Azrael knew was the paramount virtue of their movement.

Vita was young and had not known the kingdom entirely as a grand power, but she had been there to see Queen 'the witch' Beryl connive it to its own destruction, which was a case in point about how the selfish personalities of a monarchy had cost everyone in the long run. As any true member of the military was concerned, the kingdom was where loyalty was directed, not at the personalities that were the crowned leaders for a time. Kings and Queens came and went, but the kingdom remained forever if – contrary to what the leaders may think – the right people were there to protect it, at least this was what the aging intelligence officer and kept telling himself.

A throne after all was not a weapon and one person wasn't enough for projecting force, which is why armies existed in the first place. To protect the sovereignty of their kingdom, their royal court had once employed generals who had lead armies to advise the leader. Their task was to take what was being suggested into consideration and to evaluate with honestly the merits and flaws of the Monarch's plans. It had worked very well in establishing the kingdom as a major power, but Beryl had been a queen who hadn't followed this tradition. She had ignored the advice, purged the objectivity from her court and replaced it with hapless cronies that were nowhere near as competent as the good men that had helped raise the kingdom from the ground.

Vita understood that as well as her teacher and had experienced the results of the witch's – As Beryl would be forever referred to as – lack of judgement. Now there was no true kingdom to return to, just a factional war between various elements that had lived through the destruction of the royal court. There was no unity, no control and no ultimate authority to lead them in a single mission which Vita had decided was an important factor in judging Denisa for her harsh words before.

"She has little respect for everything you have done" Vita commented sourly "everything you did for her and the others to return our leader to the fold…"

"She can't be swayed because of her pride, you should have known that already" Azrael answered softly "and it takes a lot to be objective courage to question superiors and Denisa can be commended for at least that…Warrior instinct isn't entirely a false philosophy"

"But she doesn't even trust your own judgment" Vita protested,

His reply simply was a brief chuckle "Sooner will the universe freeze before an old Warrior like her will trust an old intelligence officer like me without reason…Denisa knows combat better than me and the general even more so...and trusting my opinion on the subject with their experience is quite lacking in their own objectivity isn't it?"

"But Sir…" Vita pleaded, refusing to see her teacher as having wronged the superior they worked for.

"Vita…when you succeed me…the generals of our kingdom will look for you guidance…not opinion" Azrael lectured her student once more "your duty…is to provide the warriors the information they need to win wars, and in turn the warriors provide you the protection and abilities to obtain information"

"I can't see how warriors like Denisa will ever listen to us" Vita replied "she is too thick on pride"

"They all come around eventually" Azrael answered "the covenant of loyalty to the kingdom will overcome each one's personal disillusions in the end"

"So you hope"

"The general and I did" Azrael replied "...and when the time comes, you will see that there is no border between intelligence officer and warrior…you share common law, common faith, and common objectives"

"It's really all that simple?"

"It usually is" Azrael smiled to his student, giving her the paradigm answer that he first taught her to say when she couldn't know for sure. He commonly ignored instinct, but something told him that the next few days would be a trial for Vita.

* * *

"So you didn't get to see her last night?"

"I'm afraid not, she came home late…" Ami replied with some sadness "I think she had to switch shifts with someone again"

"Makoto must've been disappointed" Usagi replied before she continued to drink her milkshake.

The two of them were having a late lunch at the Crown Fruit Parlor since it turned out that Usagi's in-laws were arriving today and her house was busy enough without having space to invite Ami over for the brief but secret meeting. Despite what Saeko thought of her daughter's notice on the message board, originally Usagi was supposed to go over to Ami's, but the plan had change at her younger Mizuno's request. The reason simply was out of courtesy of her mother, whom would've arrived home late and was probably sleeping still. Despite how much she wanted to talk to her mother, she had to respect the laws of the body and sleep, So Upon Usagi's arrival at the door this morning, Ami had redirected her friend to leave with her to find somewhere else to talk about things. With both of their own homes not suitable to talk about things, they decided to have it over drinks.

"So what did Luna have to say about her worries?" Ami asked

"She'll get over it…" Usagi waved dismissingly "She said the other senshi had no problem with you disclosing anything to your mother, just give them time to work up a decent excuse for Hotaru"

"That's a relief…" Ami said

"Don't worry…Luna had to know it too"

They were referred to the fact that despite Usagi, Minako and Artemis all signing off and agreeing to the idea of letting Ami's mother into the loop, Luna still had her doubts. The reason understandably being that she hadn't taken the same accepting stance that Artemis and most of the senshi adopted, rather Luna cited it a serious risk to security. In looking for a temporary solution to the problem, Luna had Usagi tell Ami that until she spoke to the other senshi, Ami could not say anything else she had talked to them, which had been one of the original purposes of her trip to the Setsuna's house the previous day.

While the others were at the temple discussing it with Ami herself and gauging her mental reaction, Luna had gone to talk to them on their opinion of not only the very recent attack, but the seemingly more stressing situation regarding the elder Mizuno. It seemed agreed by everyone that it was hard to decide which of the two was the more important; disclosure of information to Ami's mother or discussion of the attack and the ramifications of it.

On the subject of the attack itself; what Luna learnt was not much more different than what she had learnt from Artemis half a day before when he got home. So far the outer senshi had been very cautious about their new enemy's stance, citing the difference in tactics and general approach as examples. No life force or energy had been taken, just damage and destruction before they were vanquished, which was odd in itself. Unfortunately like their counterparts at the temple, they had drawn the same conclusions and left Luna with really nothing else to work with. They were concerned no doubt, so much so that talk had started about cancelling their skiing trip, which told volumes of how serious they were taking it. But besides the report that they had effected in quelling the battle before the belated arrival of backup, nothing else could be said, except that it happened and that it had been unlike anything before.

On the subject of Saeko Mizuno however; they had all expressed differing opinions. Haruka and Michiru had made their objections known, but by this point had been subdued by reality that there was nothing that could be done now. Hotaru was really the only one who showed honest enthusiasm for the situation, citing that it would be a positive step if worked out alright. Setsuna too had come to that belief, citing Ami's mother would, in a lacking choice of word,; become an important test bed for measuring reaction and working out a formula for disclosure that might work with the others. With that; it was universally acknowledged that all the senshi had in some varying degrees, concern for the situation regarding disclosure for Ami's mother. And at the same time, with only the mild exception of again Haruka and Michiru, none of them felt a need to hide anything except for things of sensitive nature.

With the mixed but positive blessing of the outer senshi; Luna came to the acceptance that the was really no way she could deny Ami's right to at least tell her mother some of the more basic details. If she didn't, there was a fear that the relationship between Ami and her mother would be strained to breaking point if she was to continue going on as normal without explaining things. The real last thing Ami needed was situation in which she was being denied the ability to talk to her mother that would in turn create distrust and maybe rejection, an outcome that she had just avoided from the onset.

"Well…it's a new thing for everyone" Ami replied "I guess there is a lot to figure out"

"I know…but she did say some pretty mean things about your mother" Usagi commented dryly, she didn't want to go further than she already had in explaining, but at one point Luna had called into question the elder Mizuno's ability to keep secrets. That Luna ignored Saeko Mizuno's fifteen years experience as a clinical doctor and one who respected doctor-patient privacy had annoyed Usagi a lot and she had made her thoughts known on the subject.

Ami simply looked worried at her friend for just mentioning it "Well I'm just happy that she is okay with it now…"

Usagi nodded before looking down at her watch,

"Where is she?"

"Are you sure she knows to come here instead?" Ami asked worried

"Well Artemis had the phone, but I'm pretty sure he would've told her"

Usagi had invited Minako to come along top to tell her the good news, but her fellow blonde friend was nowhere to be seen. Originally she was supposed to come to Ami's house later, but when they decided to change plans, she called up Minako via communicator to tell her to come to the café instead. Artemis had picked up instead and told her that she hadn't woken up yet, citing something about a late night.

"I wonder if she forgot…" Ami started to speak before the door at the entrance slammed open, surprising the two at once. In a moment their question had been vaguely answered but it would be a minute or two before she calmed down enough to explain.

"Sorry I'm late…" Minako replied quite loudly "I rushed over to your house Ami…but when nobody answered the door, I suddenly realized…"

"More like you finally listened to me…" Artemis growled lowly before being knocked on the head, the other two look wryly at Minako when she did that.

"Anyway…here I am!" Minako continued before she sat down. To say that the other two were embarrassed at the overt display that their friend put on was something understated constantly.

After a minute of calming down, Usagi asked the obvious question "Why did you wake up so late? Artemis said you were still asleep when we called"

"Well…" Minako started to explain "Last night I was at the airport…"

The two of them nodded in approval realizing right away the reason. Minako's relatives had come in the previous night, on what to them was an early flight leaving London, but for the Aino family meant waiting around until ten last night at Narita aiport for them to arrive. After their arrival, it had been a two hour process of driving home, quickly sorting out arrangements and getting everyone settled in bed. By the time that was accomplished, it was the next day technically and Minako was exhausted.

"So what are they doing today?" Ami asked curiously

"Recovering from their jet-lag mainly" Minako responded tiredly "not that my cousins seem to have that problem…"

"That much is certain" Artemis replied in a low voice. Neither he nor Minako had really been in love with the new arrangements for the sake of their visitors. For him, it had meant he was pretty much restricted to the garage for now since one of the visitors had a cat allergy, not that she really had one. For Minako, it was being kindly asked to move to the futon to allow the said cousin to take her bed. Her aunt had made the insistence since her daughter was use to only western beds, that she at least sleep on one during her stay at the Aino household. Despite the arrangement, Minako had gotten a good night's sleep while Artemis didn't quite get so much, the garage lacked heating.

"So how are they?" Usagi asked

"Cousins are fine, Aunts are not" Minako warily advised them "My aunt is worse than my mother sometimes…my mom is taking them out to Tokyo tower later today when they are over their adjustments…"

"Tourists…" Artemis commented dryly, the girls all chuckled

"So Usagi, what did Luna have to say about Ami's mother?"

And again, Usagi briefed the two on the arrangement. She could talk about anything she wanted, for as long as the subject wasn't too sensitive. The necessary exception came from Luna feeling that telling the straight truth would probably hurt Ami more in the long run if her mother first didn't have a proper appreciation of the job and duty the senshi had to do. Explaining death and rebirth was not something anyone could accomplish simply by explanation, especially to a person like Saeko Mizuno whose business sometimes associated with the former, but seldom the latter.

"I guess that's a fair enough compromise" Artemis spoke after he considered the agreement carefully "Still leaves a big question mark on what she means by sensitive…"

The three girls nodded, despite their position on the matter; they all knew that there was some things that careful consideration would be required to explain properly. Luna had also conveyed Setsuna said that everything they did would be important for them in working out how to explain things when the time came to tell others. In a sense, Setsuna had made Ami's mother a test bed for this scenario, something that at the same time felt insulting and understandable.

"So did you see her last night?" Minako asked

"No" Ami repeated her answer "And believe me, Makoto was more displeased than I was…she even made my mother Okonomiyaki"

"Ouch…" Minako replied with a chuckle

"I'm pretty sure Luna has nothing to worry about" Ami continued "at this rate, it'll be next week before I see mom at a civilized hour"

"Don't say that…" Usagi said "I'm sure she wants to talk to you as much as you do"

"I know…but I just wish she could make the time" Ami sighed.

She didn't want to admit it to them but it was starting to bite at her when she would talk to her mother. Quite the opposite from denial of information, Ami was starting to wonder if her mother really would want to know about her secret life in a week. By then her mother might have found something else to worry about, as parents did. She wasn't crying for attention on the matter, but the feeling that came from being able to relieve her guilt had created a new sort of anxiety. Despite being told it was alright, Ami felt that she had at least the responsibility to redeem herself for lying to her over the years and she wouldn't feel relieved until she explained everything that her mother wanted to know.

"Where is Luna by the way?" Artemis asked "I thought she would be here to tell us in person"

"She said she was looking into the attack" Usagi said "And she also said she was looking for somewhere to practice…"

"Figures…" Artemis sighed

Minako and Ami, despite the differences in intelligence and attitudes, both sighed. Usagi having already heard this from her didn't really have the same reaction since she was already use to it.

"Why?" Minako first asked "The last battle was almost perfect…"

"She's not worried about battle tactics" Artemis sighed, he had already heard it as well "She thinks our reaction times were a disaster"

"I don't understand" Ami asked "What is she worried about?"

Artemis started to explain "It took twenty minutes for backup to arrive...Luna says that's not good enough"

"It's not like we had prior warning…" Usagi protested, "I didn't even know about the attack until I was finished with dinner"

The two others rolled their eyes, but they understood the problem. How does one excuse herself to secretly handle a crisis? It had also been the first real battle in eighteen months they all kept telling themselves and nobody had been the slightest bit ready for battle. Rei, Matako and Usagi were the immediate backup with Setsuna and Michiru being too far away to help.

"Well, let's see what she says" Artemis concluded "in the meantime, I think it's at least for the best to be ready to move out on a minute's notice"

"I know I know…" Minako sighed before muttering "might be a good excuse to get away from that old hag…"

"Minako…" Ami sighed and sweated at the rebuke

"I'm kidding!" Minako smiled "I'm just annoyed that she evicted me from my own bed…at least it's my cousin sleeping there and not her…"

She then added that her aunt had also commented harshly on a girl her age still collecting dolls. One of the first things she found in her room was the closest space stacked with a complete set of second generation Sailor star action figurines and a brand new third generation third generation Sailor Venus/V that Minako had acquired on the way home from the temple. They had been hiding there because Minako had feared the rebuke that she would get from her aunt if she saw the figurines, but she hadn't quite expected her to open the closet door.

"…my cousin didn't mind them at all" Minako spoke "in fact she kept asking me questions about them for an hour before she fell asleep…I think she wants her mother to go and buy them now"

Usagi chuckled "You should start selling toys for a living if you can convince an eight year old to buy Senshi dolls"

"Yeah…but she kept me up until one in the morning…I was so tired this morning that I didn't know you decided to go out" Minako chuckled "I kept knocking on the door for five minutes"

Ami arched an eyebrow at that and then asked "Wait, you knocked for five minutes and nobody replied?"

"Nope…"

"Strange…" Ami replied "I'm sure she was…"

"Hey Ami…what are you talking about?" Usagi asked

"Well, its kind of hard to not hear the door knocking at my place" Ami replied, "it's strange because I thought mom would still be home sleeping"

"Maybe she went to work early again?" Minako offered "you said she works pretty weird hours…"

"…I guess" Ami sighed before thinking about it more. She was sure that she heard the soft snores of her mother in her room, but the whiteboard hadn't been changed to indicate when she got home, or when she was heading out for work again. So unless she was called out again before Minako arrived at her place, her mother hadn't even been home and most likely had done a double shift at the hospital in that case. It was actually good news, it meant she would be home tonight and they could continue their conversation. But that wasn't a given, if Ami returned home now, she'd be asleep and what time could be spent on talking to each other would be blown thanks to differing sleep routines.

"It's almost like the hospital knows and doesn't want you to talk to her" Usagi joked

"It does feel like that"

And that's was the real problem now, it wasn't like last week when she was worried about what to do for Christmas, things had changed, now it wasn't about having her mother home for the holiday, it was just about seeing her to talk about something that felt important. And despite that, Ami resided that here and no, she didn't really know a lot about how she could answer all her questions, let alone if she would be able to any time soon. Despite the blessing of both her close friends and both guardian cats; she was powerless to resolve both problems. It all mattered on when she could talk to her. And when would they get the time?

'No' Ami corrected herself, when would her mother find the time?

* * *

Preparation for the attack took time, it wasn't as simple as before when they just picked a random location with simple instructions for the attack party. Unlike Achen's ill-fated attack, this one had a much more detailed planning. Detailed maps had been drawn up from the collective memory of Vita's visit to the police station and Azrael had carefully instructed Denisa on what her targets would be and how to get there. The reason simply was that they couldn't accurately teleport without risking materializing between rooms and thus stuck in a wall. They had to pick large open areas and the plan was to do so on the roof, both for arrival and departures.

Next, the Auto-troops were gathered and moved to the basement cellar where the movement conducted its teleportation moves. Organizing the numbers to teleport and balancing them for both timing and calculated risk of loss during transit. Then there were the preparations, Azrael spent his time remembering the path to the tapes and preparing his daggers while Denisa double checked her sword and her surplus supply of potion grenades. The General had observed the preparations with interest, another reason why he picked Denisa and not anyone else was his need to make the two work together if they were to continue on their mission in the future. It was a serious gambit he knew, but the general had grown tired of both Denisa's arguments and the consensus feeling that Azrael was not suited at all for his top.

If they could accomplish this mission, then there would be order among his colonels and with the information gathered, Colonel Azrael, master spy, could then help identify the senshi. Then, one by one, his subordinates could bring to reality the goal he had sought.

"Colonels, have you prepared yourselves?" the general asked his subordinates

"Yes Sir" Azrael spoke formally as he came to rigid attention, his loyalty to his commander radiated, but not patronizingly.

"Yes Sir" Denisa spoke less formally, showing that at least this time, she would allow herself to be upstaged by this part-time solider standing next to her.

The two of them walked to the center of the seven magic circles that were for teleportation. The two of them surveyed the combat group they were taking them one more time then themselves.

"You only brought daggers?" Denisa spoke "You never were a serious solider…"

Azrael didn't say anything to counter that, her weapons were designed for field combat, not for fighting inside of the building. The two would forever be enemies in every respect, even if their general tried to reform her views.

"You'd better be careful then" she spoke finally "You might not come back with just those things…"

"Commence Teleport" the General ordered and the magic obeyed his order, in an instant, two of the six outer circles glowed bright blue and the auto-troops they contained disappeared, in another few minutes, the second set of two circles repeated the process, then the third and then finally the final one which had the two attack party leaders. Vita saw the eyes in her sensei as he finally started to disappear, their message had been one that only intelligence officers could interpret and it made her fret for a second before realizing that nothing could be done.

* * *

"And that's the last tape" Ayaka said as she pressed the reject button on the copier machine

"Congratulations!" Minoru said as he picked up the clipboard and ticked off the tape labeled SHOP 2055 12/97 "Now all we have to do is put them all in the boxes and send them off the headquarters"

The team had worked into the previous night and the next day to get all the tapes done in such a hurry and Kenji had managed to obtain as many spare units as possible for the task, all with the goal of doing this boring task in a day. They hadn't quite made 24 hours, but at just around dinner time, the last of the hundred or so tapes had been copied over to the red high quality tapes that came in the three boxes. Despite the feeling that came with completing the task; they knew it was far from over. Upon completion of this task, they would have to continue work on the analysis of the tapes, a task that had already taken away their weekend and promised to take away their coming week. Ayaka walked to her desk and picked up her purse and car keys

"Well I can at least now have dinner" Ayaka spoke as she turned to face her senior "I feel like Chinese, you in?"

"Sounds good, what about Kenji?" Minoru said

As if on cue, the team leader walked into the room "What about me?"

If there was ever something weird about the man, Minoru thought, it was his ability to show up right when he was mentioned. He had long suspected that Kenji must've had the room wired like a pinball machine, at least to catch anyone saying something behind his back.

"You in for Chinese?" Ayaka repeated

"Yeah…may as well take a break…"

"Okay…heading out"

Once the door was closed, the two men chuckled and sat down to continue with their report. She would be at least an hour before she came back with dinner they knew, no sense getting comfortable waiting for her to return. Kenji sat down and turned his Toshiba laptop back to face him and started to read what was done so far. Minoru was glad to leave Kenji to do that, being the elder and thus less experienced of the two when it came to those gadgets, he merely was glad he wasn't being asked to type on it.

"Well, what did Shinji have to say?" Minoru said

"Chief said that the initial report told him pretty little about looking for evidence of the sesnhi transforming" Kenji replied sourly "…I thought everyone was over that"

"We are going to look for it?" Minoru snorted as he continued to read a witness testimony from a literal pile of them at his side.

"I hope not…" Kenji said as he caught up to the end of the document and started typing "Id take the fun out of life if we found out who they were wouldn't it?"

"You said it…" Minoru said as he dropped the paper on the read pile to his left and picked up another from the to-be-read pile on his right. It was eye straining work but Minoru always preferred to read printed text over the glaring computer screens that filled their offices now like so many television screens. Minoru dropped the report down to take a rest, with his many years of experience reading reports, he had to admit there was only so much concentration he could give to work before he had to take a break. So instead of looking at the papers, He closed his eyes and opened them again looked over at the pile of tapes that they had to put back in their boxes. Two boxes had been done so, but the remainder from this afternoon's handiwork was still out.

It was just then Minoru noticed it, something he realized that he should've noticed before. Security tapes typically were the same color; black and every tape they got from the shopping center was the same. But the blank tapes they received from headquarters were all maroon, and several had even been purple. It was curious, sure they were all suppose to be higher quality; but why the different color?

"Hey Kenji…" Minoru started

"Yeah?" Kenji continued typing unabated from the distraction

"You notice how the tapes are all maroon?" Minoru asked

This made Kenji stop typing and focus on the tapes, he had thought about how weird the tapes were for being a different color earlier, but didn't think too much of it. But now his partner brought it up, it returned to his conscious mind and this time stayed there.

"Yeah…" Kenji replied

"Funny…aren't blank security tapes usually black?" Minoru pondered again

"I don't know" he returned to look at the screen "well they are suppose to be high quality versions…maybe they are for the military to look at"

Minoru thought about that and he started to sift through his head where he had heard that before. Yes, the self defense forces did use different colored tapes sometimes, but didn't that girl say they came from headquarters? Something wasn't quite right about that, to go from a base, to headquarters and then to their district station and weren't the tapes used by the defense force usually bright red? He couldn't remember; a combination of tiredness and hunger had drained him of the essential facts that might've, under different circumstances ring alarm bells in his head.

"Who knows…" Minoru concluded, he was tired of reading and needed a distraction.

He got up and walked to the bench where the red tapes were still stacked. Consciously, he picked up one to read the brand name and the serial details; again nothing out of the ordinary, they were commercial quality tapes you could by at any electronics store. Had Minoru been thinking straight, the fact they were ones he saw in a electronics store would've set off some sort of alarm in his head; commercial tapes weren't the same as the ones any competent CCTV network used. Then there were the twelve tapes that they didn't even need to use, at the bottom of the third box, they had found these purple tapes, again the same brand and quality as the others. Minoru hadn't ever seen one colored purple before; maybe the dye color had been wrecked for that batch?

What he and Kenji didn't really know, and wouldn't know was that the tapes that they found at the bottom were not tapes, rather cloned objects of the real thing. Had they put the tapes into the machine to copy, they would've been surprised to learn that the VHS tape had no film canisters and wouldn't have worked. They weighed the same, but their insides had something else rather than spools containing a few hundred meters or so of black film. But before Minoru had dismissed his thoughts and walked back to the table to continue his reading; the room started to violently shake.

"What the hell!" Kenji screamed as he fell off his computer chair and onto the floor.

Minoru fell over just the same and promptly covered his head. His first thought was earthquake, but then the shaking stopped.

"What the hell…"

* * *

Ayaka walked out of the lift, fishing her car keys out of her purse as she walked. She didn't need to look where she was going, she'd worked here long enough to know her way around the building by now. Walking down the small steps to the basement level garage, she proceeded to walk to her personal automobile; a red Honda Today that was messy on the inside and was long overdue for a tune up. Down here after business hours, the car spaces were mostly empty and as she walked by, she saw there were a few police officers across the way talking, or smoking by their cars as they talked about their up coming patrols for tonight. She briefly wondered to herself how much different their job was from hers; she had gone into the police service investigations branch from the start and had never really been in another department.

She briefly wondered, as some officers do, how much more interesting their jobs were compared to hers. Ayaka wasn't really too displeased that she had to stay back late, her social life was really in the bin right now, she couldn't find a man and work seemed to be more interesting than some of the people she had met lately. Despite that, she had the urge every now and then to go out and do something more than watch films and read testimonies for reports. Admittedly, that was par for the course if she wanted to see the juicy things about which her job awarded her, such as footage of the Sailor Senshi kicking enemy tail and working with some smart people to find out who they were.

Ayaka turned her head down to find the keyhole in the car door but before she inserted the key, a rocking explosion prevented her from unlocking her car. The ground vibrated and she flinchingly grabbed onto her car and braced, but then the shockwave of the explosion came and knocked Ayaka off her feet and into the wall that she parked up against. The other police officers whom were just standing around and awaiting for their revised assignments all turned in surprised before they were also knocked over like rag dolls into whatever offered itself an inviting thing hit against. When the vibrations and falling rocks from the ceiling stopped; Ayaka came to and stood up, and quickly struggled back into the roadway where she couldn't see anything.

"What was that?" She asked the basement, but instead of hearing the screams of the other police officers, she heard something a lot closer.

Ayaka didn't turn her head in time to see face of the thing that stabbed a sliver scarab blade into her lower abdomen and promptly lift her off the ground. Had she seen its face through the dust though, she would've maybe recognized straight away as the smaller of the two robotic creatures that the senshi fought in the shopping center. Regardless her mind went white and the adrenaline delayed the pain for only a second as she coughed blood. Before she her eyes refocused, the robot simply threw her back up against the wall she had be catapulted against before. Her back broke upon impact and she slid like a doll to the floor, blood dripping on the wall and on the basement floor. Ayaka slumped over and went limp.

* * *

_Author's commentary: This chapter really where the second act starts, and it was around here I wanted establish who my enemy was. When the orginal concept was finished, there was actually a different enemy in mind and but when the concept story was turned into to a full draft, I found a new approach i could try when i started to flesh out the personnalities. One thing I really wanted to do, is I wanted to make the opponant at least compedent in what their doing and look for a reason why these folks havent shown up before. I'm not sure if thats how it looks, but its certainly something I'm trying._


	8. Chapter 7: Reaction time

**Chapter 7: Reaction time**

"What was that?" Hotaru spoke out of the blue.

The first people to notice was the outer senshi, who by chance had been loading the boot of their car with groceries several blocks away. They had gone into town to buy the coming week's worth of food, as well as some other things that Michiru and Setsuna had to pick up for the house. While they loaded the car up, Hotaru and Haruka had waited, acting as the supposed members of the family that didn't help load the car. At once everyone stopped what they were doing and perked their ears; it was faint – and could only be best heard by Hotaru – but they heard the faint end echo of an explosion. It wasn't far off, thought it sounded so through the city noises, but when the noise offered itself a second time, all of them heard it.

"Was that an explosion?" Michiru spoke for everyone, her eyes quickly looking for the direction it came from.

When Haruka heard it this time, she instantly thought of another explosion; the one she heard when they were walking about few days ago at the Juban Super center. She only had to look down at Hotaru who at the same time turned to look at Haruka. They two of them were all the more familiar with the noise and with their concurring unspoken agreement; knew what it was. At once Haruka turned her head to Setsuna whose face wondered for only a second what the two were looking at each other for before getting it.

"That came from the police station" Michiru then announced as she pointed to a pillar of smoke that just started to appear.

That piece of news only confirmed what they already had known for all of half a minute and solidified the next five minutes of reaction. Emergencies are by definition something one cannot plan or react terribly well to, but the mix of training and commonality of events improved the situation a bar above panic. After the momentary pause of shock passed; the team hurried the process they were doing and made for a hasty departure. In hindsight, they could've left behind the remaining contents of the trolley, but at the same time would've confused other shoppers at their abandonment of groceries and other sundries.

When Setsuna and Michiru placed the final bag in the car, they slammed the boot shut, discarded the trolley to the side and jumped into the car, where Hotaru and Haruka had been waiting to make as dramatic an exit from this parking lot as they had done for when they had to leave the Juban super center. Driving out of the shopping center, the four of them tried to work out what to do next, when panic subsided and rational thought started up, Setsuna had made the first, and in hindsight most obvious order.

"Call the others up"

The only two who could follow the order did so, which had lead to a minor panic as Michiru and Hotaru quickly fiddled in their pockets to draw out their communicator and start calling everyone. For the first thirty seconds their efforts were in vain as they managed to accomplish nothing more than jamming the communicator net with a mixed signal that cancelled each other out. Eventually they managed to organize themselves to call senshi one by one. The first contact that picked up was Rei, whom Hotaru quickly expressed to her as simple a message as possible.

"There is an emergency at the Minato police station!"

* * *

Almost a kilometer away, Usagi, Minako and Ami were about to break off for the day. After their lunch time chat, they had taken the chance to catch up on some of their other, more beloved pastime activities, mainly hanging out at the arcade and window shopping at the various stores around the Shopping district. Minako had been tempted to return to the Juban super center but had decided not to just yet. When she went yesterday, she had gone for the purpose of accessing the damage, as well as the other more subtle objective of picking up that other thing she wanted to get straight away.

The reason for their afternoon on the town had another purpose however, as much as Minako and Usagi missed their free time doing what they could like they did in middle school, both blondes felt a need to cheer Ami up, even if she didn't need it. But despite their exhaustive efforts, it was about to all go to waste. At roughly the same time, Ami and Usagi's communicators went off; both surprised to hear it, they quickly exited the already loud arcade and pressed the receive button. The following was a confusing melee of words

"Sailor Moon!" Michiru started to speak before a second later,

"Sailor Mercury" Hotaru yelped

"Yes?" Usagi and Ami both replied at the same time, momentarily wondering what was going on. The general rule was they never used their alter-ego names unless there was a real emergency. A second or two followed before someone spoke again, both Michiru and Hotaru had been surprised on the other end to get what sounded like four affirmatives through their combined speakers. Figuring out what happened, Michiru elected to continue on while Hotaru paused.

"There has been an explosion at the police station" Michiru continued on for Usagi "Where are you?"

"I'm outside the crown arcade" Usagi reported straight away before forcefully adding "Minako, Artemis and Ami are with me"

Speakers aside, Usagi didn't want to say their code names aloud in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Alright" Michiru continued "Meet up in the alley way behind the station as soon as you can, we've already called Mars and Jupiter"

"Alright!" Usagi spoke as she quickly pressed the disconnect button and looked up at Minako and Ami, who had already fiddled in their pockets for their henshin sticks. Out of her subconscious checking, Usagi placed a hand on the center of her chest to feel for her broach, making sure she too had her transformation tool. Once sure of that, she promptly nodded and the three senshi darted off towards the police station.

* * *

Roughly ten minutes after the first warning by Hotaru, Jupiter and Mars arrived already transformed at the agreed meeting point via the rooftops, but amazingly they were the last to get there. The close proximity of Sailor Moon, Venus and Mercury and quick reaction time of Mars and Jupiter had been the closest thing to a miracle drill time when compared to their test runs that Luna had conducted. With all nine of them transformed and grouped, they got to work. With little instruction, they left Artemis in Setsuna's car with a communicator and all proceeded to run down the alley way until they met the dead end and a wall that bordered the police station's perimeter. One by onem they jumped over and cleared it with room to spare, except in the case of Uranus and Jupiter, all of them landed short and on the roof of the patrol car garages that lined this section of the wall.

A quick hop down from them corrected the disposition and in a moment the nine senshi ran towards the only logical destination that offered itself, the source of the smoke. All around the compound they could hear the sound of fire alarms and the sound of minor explosions going off from inside. They ignored it and found both the source of the smoke and their entrance into the building. The car entrance to the basement parking lot had been the only feasible escape for the rising smoke and in a minute the Senshi all lined up to make their entry. Caution told them to go slowly and they did with Saturn, Uranus and Pluto taking the lead given their attributed procession of weapons. Rounding each corner, for the first time; the Senshi moved as they had trained.

Upon their arrival to the bottom of the slope, their first concern was quite obvious; all around them the smoke created a thick fog that only amplified where a golden flicker of light was seen. Whatever had been here had blown up several cars in the process and the fire sprinklers had either been damaged or were not effective as the fire continued to spread. The sudden explosion of yet another gas tank told them straight away the first important task.

"Neptune, Mercury" Venus yelled

The two senshi called on stood clear of the others and performed their respective incantations. In a minute the dry smoke fog was met with a wetter foam one that instantly helped clear the air and visibility while the glowing golden blobs were put out by the impact of water. When this was accomplished, the only fires remaining were small enough that the automatic sprinklers would either finish them off or would burn out on their own. For the next thirty seconds, the entire group stood ready for a barrage of enemy anything

"All clear, spread out!" Pluto ordered

At once the senshi spread out in pairs, with Sailor Moon sticking to Neptune and Mercury. Despite the foregone conclusion that the enemy arrived here, it became convincingly clear that they had since moved on. The first moment of alarm came when Jupiter and Pluto saw the smears on the wall next to the crushed remains of a red Kei car. Rushing over to the other side of the line of parked cars, the two got their initial look at first victim of this battle. They rushed over at once to see who, it was a young woman, whom it looked like was a few minutes too late in leaving the complex by the evidence of her purse. She looked like she had been thrown into the wall and slid down and clearly a visible hole could be seen where a weapon had cut the guts out of her.

To say Jupiter took it well was a lie. Her face went pale as a ghost upon seeing so much blood and everything she remembered from crime fiction that scared her came back in one horrific moment. But Pluto ignoring her own shock for the moment did what she had to do and put two fingers the side of her neck to feel for a pulse, she had to be sure, and her effort had been rewarded. She was warm still, not from the heat of the fire, and she could feel her body do something else.

"Over here!" Pluto shouted "Saturn!"

As hard as it was to believe, Ayaka was still alive. The blade had impaled her in the lower abdomen and shattered her spinal cord, but her lungs and heart remained intact with the rest of her organs handing on to dear life to remain the same, not that this was to say she had exceptional chances for survival. Her mind kept racing around, fighting the pain and trying to decide if or not she had died already. Ayaka had gone beyond rational fear and her last five minutes had been a screaming match as she just wished for her life to end already if it would cease the pain. She couldn't see, she couldn't hear, she could only think. Had she been able to, Ayaka's heart may have stopped at the shock.

Saturn and Venus ran over from their position in the line and met up with the other two senshi. Straight away they two found Ayaka's slumped form a shocking, sickening and frightening sight that they had not braced themselves for. The reason for calling Saturn was simple, only she had the kind of power needed right now.

"Her pulse is very weak…" Pluto reported

"How bad?" Venus asked, positively horrified at the sight.

"Bad…" Saturn said "I can't restore her fully…"

Her injuries were just too bad to justify expending so much energy, that she was alive at all meant she might survive if medical attention arrived, but it wouldn't, not in time at this rate. So despite knowing that she couldn't expend her powers fully on her, Saturn lowered her Glaive to the floor and went to work. Concentrating fully on the task that was before her, Saturn closed her eyes, carefully examined her power and saw how best to conserve it. Pressing her hands together for a second, she moved them apart, creating a glowing black, then purple ball of energy before pressing it towards the abdomen of the fallen inspector. Saturn's only tasks were to stop the internal bleeding and make minor repairs to her kidney and to realign her spine, but nothing else. With at least these done, she now stood a better chance of survival, if she got medical attention in the next two hours.

Ayaka felt her pain suddenly go away, not entirely at first, but over a period of several minutes, it slowly dissipated down to a much less excruciating experience. Her mind finally calmed down and mistakenly thought for a moment that her time had finally come. When several minutes passed, she suddenly realized that death had not come to her and Ayaka suddenly felt belayed warmth from something. In an attempt to work out what it was, she opened her eyes but barely a slit of light came by before she was blinded by the overhead flood lights before it went dark as though something blocked it. Trying again, the foggy outline seemed to appear out of nowhere before she closed her eyes again.

"She'll be alright" Venus put her hand on Saturn's shoulder while the latter nodded. In a moment the two senshi rose and turned to leave the woman. Jupiter and Pluto accompanied them to the center of the laneway before they noticed Uranus was kneeling down to look at something with Mars simply looking over her, her face looked ashen from where they stood. Saturn and Venus jogged over there at once, wondering if another life to be saved was there, but it was not the case. The patrolmen who had been smoking before the start of their patrol had not been as fortunate as the woman they found.

"Nothing" Uranus felt for a pulse on the third and last body. It was quite obvious what it had to be, but she had to be sure.

One of them had been slumped over by the now burnt out car, with a similar but more deadly penetration wound that had entered his chest. His face pale, littered with bleeds from the equally deadly shrapnel from the exploding patrol car in front of him. The other two bodies had been flung mercilessly like rag dolls, the neck of one clearly indicating a breakage upon hitting the ground at an odd angle. Whatever happened to them, whoever had done it had been very cruel to deliver senseless and bloody death. For a moment the senshi couldn't say anything. Uranus stood silently and walked away; knowing even now that lingering around would only make her attachment worse. Mars couldn't do the same and Venus had to help her move away, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto followed suit.

They convened again at the center of the burnt out garage to decide what to do next. Nothing could be said about the three men that had died, even if Saturn could use her energy to alter their mortal status, she neither had the energy to spare on it or the ability to judge the necessity. It took them all a few minutes before they over it and returned to business. They could tell from just looking where the enemy had gone, the blasted away door nearest to the lift just ahead shown that one group had taken the stairs, while another just behind row of burnt out Police cars had shown that another group had done the same thing.

"What's the plan now?" Uranus said, quite bitterly

"Two groups" Venus recommended at once "They must've split up"

"Right" Sailor Moon spoke, she hadn't seen the bodies yet, and by the look on Mars's face, she didn't want to "Pluto? Venus?"

"We'll go with plan two" Venus said, referring to a prearranged plan they had made for just such an environment. "Saturn, Mercury, Pluto, myself, we will take the stairwell behind the police cars. Sailor Moon, Mars, Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter will take the one by the lift"

It was an simply enough order to execute and in the eighteen months of training between their last encounter and this battle, the had indeed practiced in splitting up into groups to cover more ground. The plan drafted over a year ago by Luna, Artemis and the resident tactical genus, Sailor Mercury was also the only reasonable balance in fighting in such a place such as this. It was prearranged for simplicity, Venus's team consisted of the only two pole-armed senshi and two ranged attackers with no experience in hand to hand fighting, while the four material arts experienced senshi lead the other group, both competent in hand to hand and ranged attack. With sailor moon leading the second team; there was at least one healer per group and a numerical balance that worked out both in strength and leadership. Everyone nodded and moved to their respective groups. Before the senshi broke up however, Venus brought up her communicator to talk to Artemis to update him and to explain how she and the senshi were going to proceed.

"Artemis"

"Go ahead Venus"

"We're in the basement, no enemies sighted, going upstairs now in two groups" Venus reported to her feline guardian.

"Understood, Luna just showed up about two minutes ago" Artemis replied before elaborating "she went back to get better view of things, when she finds a place, I'm going to up there too and try see what's going on from the outside"

"Okay…" Venus responded "Update us when you can"

She pressed on the disconnect button and turned to face her fellow senshi. They all by now were in their respective groups. There was no doubt in their minds now, having seen the magnitude that the enemy was willing to go only told them how important it was to stop them as soon as possible. In a minute they split up and started their dash for their respective locales.

* * *

In a hallway several floors up, the panic in the building was beyond any reasonable control as Police officers either ran to hide or formed defensive barriers with what small arms they had at their disposal. The Police did have weapons and the station armory had managed to hand out a relative portion of firearms before it was taken over by one of the two attacking groups. What shouting could be heard by chiefs ordering juniors around was peppered with the sound of gunfire and deafened by intermittent explosions. Despite their best efforts; the chaos of the moment combined with the overwhelming force of the enemy made every effort to stop their progress impossible. Floor after floor, barricades fell just as quickly as police officers did.

Azrael calmly stepped over the prone body that now lay on the floor. Unlike his bloody minded counterpart, the intelligence officer wasn't quite as lustful for the taste of battlefield chaos, only fighting when reluctantly needing to do so. They had put up a whimsical defense, quite admirable given the level of their weapons and organization among panic, but business was business to the man and he continued to walk on, letting his heavy auto-troops make a mess of every defense they encountered and letting his lighter auto-troops attack anyone who tried to resist. He was against an outright slaughter however, and had ordered them to defend themselves with their blades when it was clear that the electric shocks they gave the police officers hadn't worked. Unnecessary bloodshed only wasted time.

In just over half an hour since the beginning of this fight, he had gone floor by floor looking for the tapes, still tracing in on the signal that those dummy tapes were emitting. Eventually he found his destination. Having left his platoon two floors downstairs – which he ordered to hold this line – he and two more auto-troops surged forward to take their prize. Closing in on the room, the intelligence officer read the sign on the door and realized off-chance that this was his place. In a moment he ordered the door to be opened and it was made so a few seconds later, as one of his blade wielding escorts made toothpicks of the hardwood door.

On the other side of the door, Kenji and Minoru had been hiding out, barricading their room with the table and sharing the only weapon between them, a stun gun that they had in the room. They had no idea what was going on, no idea why it was happening, both suspected terrorists, but they saw in a second that this was no terrorist.

"Good evening gentlemen" Azrael greeted the room's inhabitants

"Stop!" Kenji was brave, but he was outclassed. He couldn't see the reaction the man had, but it didn't flinch at the remark

"Detective …you can't win…" Azreal sighed as he had to again reluctantly disable the threat. He lifted his own gun in the form of his hand he raised it to match the police officer in front of him with is stun gun. Imitating a gun, he pointed it first at the chest then at the arm holding the weapon – he wasn't a sadistic murderer – before simply muttering "…Bang"

In an instant the detective felt the stinging blow as he suddenly lost nerve and grip of the weapon he was holding and fell backwards, he didn't see what had hit him, but whatever it had been snapped his arm into four breakages and dislocated it backwards while creating a sharp gash along the length of it. He fell down and fell out of consciousness upon impacting the floor.

"Why you…" Minoru jumped up for his fallen comrade, trying to charge the man, but it was in vain. In a second he was on the floor two with a puncture in his abdomen and a broken hand.

Azrael walked over the second man who fell, to see him still quite conscious "Detective …if you had let me conclude my business here…I could've left you two unharmed…but none the less…I'm sorry I had to do this to you" he said before kicking the man in the face and forcing him out of consciousness.

His business with resistance gone, he turned his attention to the room he had just taken by force. Sure enough, he could see them all, maroon tapes all stacked everywhere. To his surprise they had gotten to bottom of the final box; they had even taken out the purple dummy tapes. By the looks of things it might be entirely possible that every tape had been copied over, his fallen enemy had done very well. None the less he had to be certain that they weren't fooling with deception, as he put the tapes back in the box, he used his own energy to check to see each one. It only took a second by a human watch and when he was sure, placed it in the box and repeated this process with another tape.

* * *

Their walk up the stairs hadn't accomplished anything more than encounter more damage and slain officers, whoever had been going this way had not cared a wit for the people in the way. The five of them continued on unabated however, the task now wasn't so much to try rescue people, but more to try and halt the battle as quickly as possible. What people that were only badly injured were being carried clear by fellow officers, themselves badly shaken from the last half an hour of battle. Some of them noticed the senshi coming through, and expressed relieving looks at their arrival to deal with the situation. Weakened in the heart at the surreal nature of encountering the path of devastation, they simply kept following the trail of destruction and injuries. The second Senshi team kept climbing the stairs until they started to hear noises, which by the sounds of the shouting, was in the middle of a siege.

On the second floor, the battle had reached a climax of sorts. In the cafeteria, the on-station hostage rescue team had barricaded themselves behind turned tables as their single medic tended to the few officers they managed to pull behind their barricade to be treated. Hostages themselves to the situation; they were limited in their resistance capability and the closing in enemy didn't only offered an approximation to when they would fall.

"Let's get to work" Uranus spoke simply as she and Neptune spread out to cover the flank.

"Mars, Jupiter" Sailor moon shouted as they saw the first glimpse of their real enemy. It was just by dumb luck that the big heavy ones had their backs turned to them; Uranus had outlined in an instant the weak points and they went to work. Three of the tank-like soldiers were arrayed blasting the police officers both in the cafeteria and continuing down into the hallway were more officers tried to hold back with their handguns. In total, there were at least eight of them, with the smaller robots simply walking slowly towards their targets, only slightly phased by the gunfire.

"Alright, let's do this" Jupiter said as she and Mars stood to compose their respective incantations.

"Mars Flame…" Mars speaking her incantation while aiming for the dead center back of the middle heavy auto-troop

"Sparkling Wide…" Jupiter waited for her charge to gain charge, timing it to volley after Mars

"Sniper!"

"Pressure!"

Mars attack was the first to fire and the first to hit its mark, it pieced through the armor of the Auto-troop and forced the monster to lurch forward, but before it got around in time to face whoever was attacking, the second attack hit. Taking advantage of the hole created by the sniper shot, Jupiter's thunderbolt attack entered the gap in the armor and discharged inside. The megavolts fried the nervous system and went a long way in creating the explosion that fatally wounded the auto-troop.

The second and third auto-troops turned at once upon detecting their comrade falling and saw their new…their real enemy. But before they could properly appreciate the targets that felled the first of their number, Neptune and Uranus went to work. Armed with her mirror; Neptune focused her energy to the target she had selected.

"Submarine…Reflection" Neptune whispered as a pillar of pressurized water ejected from the surface of the mirror. True to her aim, she'd targeted the gun-equipped right arm and successfully blew it clear. In a moment the heavy cannon fell clear of the auto-troop and it fell to the floor. Now disarmed, Uranus went in for the kill; raising her golden sword to the sky, she brought it across in a deadly strike, cutting the head off and dooming it to die like the first one. With a mighty lurch forward, it fell flat onto the floor and caught fire.

The third and final of the heavy troops had turned around however and had sighted its weapon on the first duo. Without hesitation; it opened up its main cannon on them at almost point blank range.

"Look out!" Sailor moon yelled as she jumped before she realized her landing was marred by being next to a flight of stairs and she proceeded to roll down them until stopping.

At the same time, Jupiter yelled as she jumped and pushed Mars out of the way, avoiding the projectile with only inches to spare. It flew right past them and down the hall until it made its impact on window lined wall. Its resulting explosion was deafening as it ripped the wall apart like paper. The two senshi on ground ignored the pain, their adrenaline wanting to get back at the monster that almost blew them out of existence. For the moment the two senshi rolled behind Sailor Neptune now was now prepping the third strike in their group attack. Uranus had jumped clear of the falling enemy and proceeded to dodge the strikes she was getting from the smaller robots, quite aware of what she'd done to fell one of their number. Ignoring the situation with Uranus, Mars charged up her next attack and prepared to blow up the third and final one of the heavy troops.

"Mars Flame…" Mars speaking her incantation while aiming this time at the barrel of the heavy auto-troop.

"Submarine…" Neptune whispered again before shouting "Reflection!"

"…Sniper!"

This time both attacks launched at the same time, hitting their respective marks a split second apart. In an instant the second Submarine reflection stabbed like a knife through the plate armor on the head and obliterated its ability to react. Despite carefully aiming, Mars's second sniper shot however hit the base of the elbow and subsequently caused something that not planned. On the heavy-auto troops, the plasma rock rounds – that the cannon used – were stored here and upon hitting this part of the limb had the effect equal to throwing a lit match into a bag of gunpowder. Without expecting it or having the time to even curse at their bad fortune, the Senshi were blown backwards as the limb exploded like a bomb.

In an instant the room rocked violently as fireball erupted from the point of impact and engulfed the gun, the body that the gun belonged to, and two of the smaller auto-troops just behind their bigger cousin before disappearing behind a wall of fire that spread in every direction it could. The window lined wall to the auto-troop's right exploded outwards as a violent series of secondary explosions continued as ammunition cooked. The opposite semi-glass/semi-wall partition experienced a similar fate as it was destroyed instantly and exposed the entire cafeteria to the full force of the explosion. The hostage rescue team that had been held up in here – and almost out of ammunition – instantly ducked when they saw the wall break apart and it turn into thousands of pieces of shrapnel.

Sailor Uranus was in the room and almost about to get done in by the smaller auto-troops when the explosion caught them off guard and knocked them over and her into the air as the crushing base tone slammed by. It was a powerful effect that pushed her into the air and away from her attackers, but what safe distance she gained from her enemy was equally cursed by the impact Uranus would have with furniture in this room. The explosion briefly followed down the hallways as first blew air down, but before it reached the three prone senshi, it started sucking up air to feed the fire that erupted.

The rest of epilogue; when the dust and noise settled, the floor that the now nonexistent auto-troop had stood on had fallen though and the wall that lined both the hallway as well as the wall separating it from the cafeteria had simply been blasted to rubble. Along with the heavy auto-troop, two of the smaller auto-troops were also unaccounted for. The three senshi that had unleashed their ranged attacks had flown fully ten meters and into the wall behind them while Uranus had been smacked across the room and had almost crashed through one of the windows on the other side of the cafeteria. Sailor moon whose good fortune had knocked her clear before the blast; came to first and proceeded to hobble up the stairs to see the explosion she managed to avoid getting caught in. Looking over to where the others landed, her question was the obvious one.

"You alright?" Sailor moon yelled

"Yeah…just dandy" Mars cursed as she rolled on her off her back to get up.

"I'm alright" Jupiter blinked her eyes open and sat upright, rubbing her ears to see if her eardrums hadn't just popped.

Neptune did the same, worried for the moment about her sensitive hearing. In short order the three senshi all stood up and faced their enemy, the explosion had done a number on them like they couldn't believe. The Two standing too close to the auto-troop were simply vaporized and one more simply lost two of its limbs while the other two were still intact, but damaged. This battlefield was one hell of a mess, but was now finally in the senshi's favor.

"Right" Mars said taking control "We'll finish these three off, you take a look at those cops behind the barricade" directing sailor moon to her task. At once the four marital arts trained senshi ran to their enemy, incantations at the ready, purposeful to dispatch the remaining three auto-troops quickly.

Observing from their barrier, the hostage rescue team saw with the own eyes the power that senshi unleashed in such ballet like perfection. Then the explosion came and that ballet like prowess had quickly evaporated into sheer brute force destruction. Now coming to themselves, they saw that despite lacking grace in their attack, their enemy had all but been wiped out and now one of them was approaching. Sailor moon ran as fast as she could before making a quick jump over the barricade wall of chairs and tables and into the safety of the ground that this small band of regular police officers and SWAT team members had held.

"You're…." the leader of the group spoke, surprised to see her.

"Yep! I'm sailor moon" she introduced herself cheerfully, despite her painful bump on the head "Is anyone hurt?"

* * *

Sitting from the roof of the business block next door the to the police station; Artemis and Luna had waited five minutes after that deafening explosion before they heard their communicator beep. Mars was calling in.

"Sailor Mars!" Luna asked at once "We saw that explosion, what happened?"

"Pass the word on to Venus and the others for me" Mars said crudely "Do not shoot the gun limb, it's rigged to explode"

"…understood" Luna replied before looking up at Artemis's half grin

"Is anything going on out there?" Mars continued

"I've seen some flashes at the other side of the building, the other team just reported in , they are already a floor above you" Artemis reported "the situation out here is chaos, there are several helicopters in the air and the front of the building is packed with cops and I think soldiers"

"Aright" Mars spoke "pass on the advice to the others…we're going to be awhile here…we're going help some of the officers where we can"

"Don't waste time, you need to go after that attacker" Luna almost yelled

"I know, but we kind of did a number here as well" Mars replied "We'll be on the move again in a few"

"Alright Mars" Artemis interjected "We'll tell the others about the gun"

The communicator went dead and the two cats looked at each other.

* * *

Two floors up and closing in on her targeted designation, Denisa strolled down the hallway, dragging her sword along the floor, leaving a bloody line behind her. Despite the need to finish off her objective as quickly as possible, Denisa and her remaining auto-troops had taken their time mopping up any form of resistance as they came across, and in the case of the many offices she encountered, she made a concerted effort to check each one out for hiding people. To say that her entire battle had been efficient or as bloodless as possible was something you couldn't really associate with Denisa. On the battlefield; she was just a sadistic murder, a blood lusting psychopath and liked everything that came with it.

So far she had come away disappointed, the concept of fortification didn't seem to apply to these soldiers or whoever they claimed to be. Only a handful of their number even had a weapon and that those with them had been managed so easily that it made the whole task not a challenge, but rather a bothersome errand. Denisa had even disposed of her primary attack force to finish off the merger resistance in the cafeteria – which so far had been the only form of actual noteworthy resistance – and procceded with her remaining auto-troops towards her ultimate objective. At the end of the hallway was where, according to the other spy, there was a storage room in here which stored information much like their orbs did.

With only a vague description of what this thing was visually, Denisa she only now just wanted to get the device or whatever it was and disappear.

"Now which one did that ditzy detective enter" Denisa pondered as she saw something that hadn't been covered in the pre-briefing, there were two doors. One said CCTV and the other said ITSO. Denisa already had a dislike of the Japanese language, but these weren't even in Japanese, they were in plain English text, further they didn't spell anything at all, it was like random letters were mixed together in hope that would one day mean something. Knowing that she had at least fifty-fifty odds of getting it right, she picked the CCTV door first. Lifting her sword from the ground, unlike the previous twenty or so doors she had her auto-troops kick in, she decided to personally do this one.

Smashing it in, she met herself with a surprise, a man must've been standing behind the door because he was on the floor now unconscious with a gash across his back. Denisa was briefly tempted to stab her sword into him to insure a timely death; but she decided that merely being knocked out trying to blockade the door was punishment enough. Denisa looked up and was further surprised. The room was empty of all but a bank of small television screens. Stepping in slowly, she walked over the half dead police officer and at random picked a screen to look at.

"This is…" Denise whispered as noticed on the screen a seemingly empty hallway, but it was next to another screen that showed the outside of this very room, it sighted all of the seven auto-troops arrayed around the door identically to how they were ordered to stand when she kicked the door in. Ignoring her attention from the cameras she turned her attention to the wall behind her and looked. Were these things those computers Vita was talking about? If they were way too small and they seemed to resemble something else altogether. All of them were labeled; gun locker room 1, garage basement 4, Cafeteria 2, Lobby 3 and so on for a grand total of 60 of these machines. Vita said only three or four of these machines were supposed to be in the room. It took her moment to realize it but every machine didn't have the letters IBM stamped on any part as she had been told to look for, all of them had Sony or Panasonic or something else there. Her anger returned finally when she realized that this room labeled CCTV was the wrong room.

In a moment of spite, Denisa raised her sword and cut a vertical strike right through the wall of VCR machines that she had faced, Not leaving a single one was left undamaged as the sparks continued to fly. Annoyed by beyond belief, Denisa left the room, but not before unclipping a potion grenade from her belt, that she carelessly tossed back into the room. After three steps away from the door, the grenade hit the far wall and exploded. Denisa continued onto the other room, this one, labeled ITSO must be the room that that intelligence girl meant; which Vita could've made it simpler by saying it was the last door before the stairwell heading to the roof, but she didn't think in simple instructions, smart people never did.

This time the door wasn't a hinged one like the other, but Denisa didn't discriminate it for being different and applied the same treatment as before. With the sliding door now toothpicks, she walked into the room and right away realized that this must've been the room the two intelligence officers were raving about. To her surprise, nobody was inside, despite checking every corner of the room, it was completely empty. For such an important room to have no gaurds; what shameless people this fortification had for lacking protecting supposedly important rooms. Disappointed at the same time, Denisa walked around to the bank where the bigger, heavy looking computer things all stood, and just like she said, stamped with little letters IBM on each one. But despite finding what she was suppose to look for; her problems hadn't stopped there,

"Email Server, Network Server, Backup Server, Database Server 1, Database Server 2, Database Server 3, Internet…" Denisa read off the little white labels that was taped to the top of each one "What the hell is an internet?"

Had Vita been here, she would've probably deduced straight away the meaning of the terms and picked the one that she was supposed to steal from. Confused at the strange technology she looking at, Denisa turned around to see what else was in this room. On the far wall, she noticed a tower like closet with no walls, and inside it was holding up a number of smaller boxes with hundreds of grey and blue stringy pieces coming out the front, either falling to their the floor or tucked behind the array of grey boxes. All the while, a hundred or so little green lights blinked on and off rapidly, slowly, or not at all. She walked over to the tower and tried to interrupt the blinking lights as if they were some sort of machine themselves that could tell her what she was looking for.

No such luck came and in a minute her curiosity turned into suspicion as she felt the little green lights mocking her. None had IBM stamped on them and that meant she could destroy them which in a matter of seconds she accomplished, cutting the small boxes down and causing yet another series of sparks and electrical fireworks. She turned her attention back to the machines that said IBM and went to work. Stabbing her sword into the ground, she placed her hands on the first one that said 'Email' and tried to work out how to access the information inside them. She looked at the top where like the small boxes she destroyed, there was a little green light blinking every now and then, next to which there was a red light that occasionally lit up. Next to it there was a button of sorts; curious she pressed down on it.

In an instant the machine turned off and the two little lights that seemed to be mocking her as well disappeared.

"Did I just kill it?" Denisa pondered before she pushed the button again. The reverse happened this time, it briefly roared before it resumed its normal humming noise and the two lights returned to life. Denisa wasn't any means unintelligent, establishing that function of that button, she didn't touch it again and looked for something else that might offer answers. Turning her attention to box in general, It didn't say much else, she saw a small little white button near the top and pressed it, suddenly a tray-like part of the machine extended itself and stopped with slow mechanical speed, after a few second of looking at it, the thing then returned to its original place and a little flap door closed itself.

She decided pressing that again would only result in the same thing and decided to look for something else to press. Nothing offered itself; but at the bottom lined vertically up, was a series of smaller labels she didn't notice before. There were 8 in total and all of them had something like a lever in place on the top. She placed her hand on the hook-like handle and tugged it, but it barely moved a millimeter before being stuck by something. Denisa tried again, but it didn't budge, already at the limit of how far she could pull it. Curiously, she decided press the first button again that killed the machine before trying again, but it still didn't move. Before she was about to use all her strength to rip it out of its socket, Denisa finally noticed that right next to it, there was a little square piece of plastic to the right that said 'press'. Doing so as instructed, she pushed the button, then pulled it; again it didn't budge.

"Is this machine mocking me while it's dead?" Denisa swore, finally she used her other hand to hold the 'press' button down and at the same time slide the thing out; this time she was successful. She raised the thing up to her face and tried to see what it was; her eyes couldn't read the tiny print on the silver box detailing it as a SCSI two gigabyte hard drive rated for 14,000rpm built not by IBM, but she could see it say 'storage device'.

"Is this the Human equal to an orb?" Denisa asked herself,

If so it required a machine to work and that was a hassle that Denisa didn't expect; it would mean she would have to steal one as well. Denisa returned it to its original place, finding she didn't even need to press the button to put it back in. She went to another machine and found all of them had these white labels on the bottom. Repeating the process; she first turned the server off and then repeated the process to remove the silver box from the big beige one. She read the label on it as well, again saying storage device and the white label simply listing it as 6/DS1; it was then Denisa finally got it. Vita and Azrael could mock her competence; but her warrior instinct always came through, even if it was a prolonged process of trial and error.

She'd been warned about their fragile design, though Denisa couldn't honestly believe it given the weight of the object and its obvious shielding strength, none the less Denisa looked around for a means of carrying the little silver boxes. She found one, a plastic box that had contained a load more of the spaghetti like string. After dumping the contents of the box, her task proceeded to start with removing all the silver boxes from the machine labeled Database Server 1 and placing them in bottom of the plastic container, then she returned to the one she had started at and removed all the ones from it, then the internet one, then the others. Eventually she withdrew each hard drive and had stacked them in several piles inside the plastic box.

This accomplished, Denisa turned to face the largest server with the most of these spaces for the little silver boxes. She selected the one labeled 'Backup Server' and removed it from the wall in one mighty pull, ripping it off its housing bolts and ripping it from the cables connecting at the other end. It was a heavy machine she noticed straight away, not only were their orb interface devices large, the were also quite hefty, none the less her strength from holding similar objects in mass prevented her dropping the machine to the floor and thus requiring her to select a less capable machine. Now freed from its connections, Denisa walked it back through the door and turned to face her guarding platoon of auto-troops.

She looked at one and ordered "You drop your blades and carry this"

The Auto-troop made a clicking noise and complied with its commander's order. It wasn't holding its silver blades per say as they were clamped onto its semi-metal, semi-organic lower arm, with a simple command; they de-clamped from the auto-troop and fell to the floor. It walked forward and picked up the machine out of her hands with exceptional ease and then stood back to stand there. Denisa turned and returned to the room and moments later returned with the plastic box. It had proved to be almost as heavy as the computer she just stole and she repeated the order to another auto-troop, again dropping its blades to the floor and retrieving it from her hand while this auto-troop received extra warning.

"Handle with care" she growled lowly, the auto-troop merely clicked in the form of compliance.

She returned to grab her sword and returned a moment later. Her task completed she looks now for her exit. Unlike her preferred plan to leave whenever she felt, they had to meet first on the roof to teleport home. Looking around for a direction, Denisa decided to open the door that she had been told to open at this point which – as promised by the intelligence officers – was the door on the very end and right next to the room she had just ransacked. The picture on the door didn't make sense to her at first; it was almost like a cave drawing of a white stick figure running down stairs. But upon a quick inspection of the room as it was, it told her the stairs also went up as well.

"Let's leave" Denisa pointed to the door. the two box carrying auto-troops started their march with their precious cargo, followed by remainder of her platoon. When the two of her remaining auto-troops were about to leave, she instructed them to halt.

"Destroy the evidence" Denisa ordered and pointed back at the room she had entered.

Responding at once, turned to face their guns into room and let loose a barrage of fire, wrecking everything inside in a shredding motion that would also set on fire by the explosions of rounds. When they finished their burst of fire; Denisa walked in to inspect, there wasn't a single thing not damaged – sure as hell no little green lights she saw blinking at her mockingly now – but just to be sure she grabbed another potion grenade and tossed it in. Her and the two auto-troops walked away and were in the stairwell when the final deafening explosion rocked this side of the building.

"That was a waste of a potion" Denisa commented, but she'd been asked to do that when she was done to cover up what she had stolen, as thought that was necessary. What was the point of it if you couldn't make people know you managed to rob them of valuables?

* * *

Mars heard the rumbles above them and realized that despite what they were doing to aid these people done here, they were being distracted by their guilt for causing so much damage. The four of them had briefly held their position while Sailor Moon did her best to help the situation and avoid anymore death. There were at least two critical that had been brought back to serious. Putting out the fire was Neptune's task and they managed to bring order to the otherwise hopeless situation.

"We're wasting time here" Mars spoke

The other three nodded and turned to Sailor moon who finished healing her third person.

"Sailor moon lets go!" Uranus yelled more forcefully "we need to catch up to this person!"

Sailor moon stood up and turned, as much as she wanted to protest as leader; she knew that Uranus was right. She nodded to the medic who had been stunned at her healing capabilities and walked back over to the group.

"They can handle things from here" Neptune put in a few kind words before going on "But if we don't stop the enemy from attacking everyone else, it's going to be useless"

Sailor moon nodded and the five of them continued their run towards the stairwell that their enemy had gone up, and resumed to follow the trail of destruction and injury that they had before. For each of them the battle had become something more horrifying than they could remember in recently. This was not the way they fought, possession of humans and abduction of humans sure, but not straight out slaughter. For Uranus and Mars;,it was the sight of those police officers that had been beyond saving for Saturn, how they had just lain there lifeless. For Jupiter, it had been the woman who was inches from demise, that Saturn had breathed into her time to be rescued, but not saved, just buying time for her.

They five continued and reached the top of the stairs, on their guard now, they did as they trained and checked for enemy.

"Clear!" Mars shouted, more passionately, her disgust and shock had long ago boiled into anger and an emotion she couldn't describe right now.

Her words told the others to climb up and run around the corner, to the next floor. It hadn't been as bloody as before, but on the floor they saw a trail of red going in a line away from them. Like following instructions, the senshi continued to progress forward. Running up the first door that had been smashed in, Jupiter took the far side while Uranus took the other side of the hallway.

"Clear!" Jupiter yelled as she saw only a wrecked office and two people inside treating each other for cuts. Knowing they could take care of themselves, the senshi moved on to the next door.

"Clear!"

* * *

"Well that's the last of that" Saeko said as she dropped the last piece of paper into the out box.

Her afternoon had been exclusively about filling forms and other menial form of paperwork that had piled up over the previous day. Saeko as proficient at doing it and was so because she had done everything in her power over the years to expunge her ratio of time spent on it to everything else she had to do. Paradoxically, it meant that the administration department felt she could handle more paperwork as a result and her vain efforts to something else other than read, write and sign was doomed to failure most of the time. But she had finished the last of her papers and was glad to be leaving now for home.

Putting her pens away and turning off her desk lamp, Saeko stood up in the now blackened room with on the opaque glass portion of her door lighting her room. Despite the darkness, she could see quite well and picked up her purse and walked out as quickly as she could, glad to be escaping the work finally and returning home at a civilized hour. Walking down the brightly lit ward she was glad to feel the revelation that her job was done for the day and too her surprise, at the drinking fountain there was Hiroyoshi who just then noticed her.

"Dr Mizuno?"

"Dr Reed" she replied in kind, the two chuckled briefly

"I guess this must be your lucky day" he spoke

"Don't spoil the luck" she replied in kind

The two started walking to the nurse station in the emergency room, Hiroyoshi because that's where he had to be anyway and Saeko because it was the easiest way out of the building. The two continued to talk; technical details had to be exchanged about the status of the ward and the people on duty. They had a full crew on which was good news for Hiroyoshi and the ward was ready for everything; a positive sign considering the chaos of a few days before. Once the formalities of business were out of the way, they turned to personnel matters.

"So have you thought about what I said the other day?" he spoke, knowing that she had

"Yes I did…" Saeko replied honestly "…And you're right, the sooner I can sort this problem out, the better"

"Well sure you can" Hiroyoshi continued "It's not too hard is it?"

"Well…" Saeko started to explain before she saw the nurse station ahead seemed to be packed for some reason.

"What's going on?" Hiroyoshi asked as they turned the corner and entered the main foyer of the Emergency room.

Nobody seemed to answer, their eyes not even noticing their senior superior asking the question or even entering the room. They were all looking up and at the wall where a small television was mounted for the staff to watch. Saeko and Hiroyoshi stood still to watch and realized it was the news; more importantly in big Japanese letters one the bottom of the screen said 'siege in Minato!' with the words LIVE in English.

* * *

_Author's Commentary: From really the start of the project, i really didnt have an idea on Denisa's charaterization until i started writing the full draft. I wanted her to be the foil, but i found it hard at times to not draw her up as a strawman objector for the sake of one. For her scene, I did go to some lenght figuring out the kind of hardware i wanted her to steal, but i have to admit that i am taking some liberty again in that respect, just as i do again with the Sailor senshi throughout this, and the next chapter during their battle here._


	9. Chapter 8: Ambush

**Chapter 8: Ambush**

On the other side of the building, Venus's team had made slow, but arguably better process than the other team. They had felt the explosion of a few minutes before as it rocked the building for a few seconds. Whatever it had been, Venus was sure it couldn't have been good. So far, their climb up the stairs had been marred by the presence of two separate contests for ground. The first had been in the lobby where one heavy and one light auto-troops had strayed behind to keep any approaching SWAT team from entering the building it had been a brief fight for them, with only Pluto having never seen them before. They had been dispatched with ease for while they were formidable, they were blind of sensors behind their backs.

The next fight occurred another floor up outside the women's locker rooms where the same disposition of auto-troops were essentially blocking the safe escape of young women who had been either going on or off duty at the time of this siege starting. Their destruction had been harder since unlike the ones in the lobby, they had been facing them this time and saw the senshi attacking. Apart from that, their progress had been a lot smoother. Nothing like the outright gore that the other team had reported had been encountered. and what injured officers they came across were being treated by others. While it was not as devastated as the other side of the building – where a huge explosion had just originated – it was nothing like they had expected.

"What was that explosion?" Venus asked her communicator

"We don't know, it seemed to happen two floors below you…" Artemis replied over the speaker "my guess is the others did something just now"

"Aright, report back when you hear something"

Venus pressed the disconnect button and slid her communicator back in the pocket before turning to the others. They had been climbing up to the next floor when the shaking occurred and they stopped to wait, crouching down to take a brief rest.

"Nothing?" Mercury asked, despite hearing it herself.

Venus shook her head. With that they continued to run up the flight of stairs and come out at the landing. Since Venus had the lead this time, it was her responsibility to check the surroundings before yelling "Clear!"

She ran across the hallway, followed by Mercury with Saturn and Pluto jumping up and covering the center of the hallway in either direction. The first thing they collectively noticed was that they were now on the other side of a barricade, instead of the three previous ones – which had since been breached – so far encountered, this one had been turned around, the police officers on the side towards them. Without really needing to check the two rooms, the quartet of senshi quickly ran up to the police officers who were just as surprised to see them.

"What's going on?" Pluto spoke for the team.

What it turned out was a simply problem where around the corner there was another blockade that the Police fight through, which incidentally was cutting off access to the medics and sickbay. With that in mind, the four of them jumped the barricades and ran down to the next intersection, Saturn who had the lead this time peered around the corner to see what they were up against. It wasn't just a few like before, rather more than she appreciated before one of the larger ones spotted her face and shot a round. Saturn jumped back in time to see the projectile sail past her nose and into the wall to her left. Safe from avoiding a hit to the face, she still fell backwards, but was caught by Pluto who had been ready for her.

"How many?" Venus asked, inspecting from a distance the hole in the wall the projectile made.

"Three big ones, six small ones" Saturn reported as she felt for her nose, making sure she still had one. Before any of them could curse their misfortune, Venus's communicator started to chime. She brought it up again and pressed the receive button again.

"What is it?" Venus asked, knowing that Artemis must've spoken to someone to the others.

"Mars said that explosion was her fault..." Artemis explained "...she said that you can't aim for the gun arm on the big ones, they'll explode if you do"

"Figures she'd be behind something like that…" Venus commented slyly before turning serious again "Is everyone alright?"

"Yes" he replied "they're going to hold where they are for a bit and help with the cleanup before moving upwards"

"Alright"

"What about you?"

"We just ran into a bunch of them ourselves, thanks for the advice, we'll try avoiding the same thing" Venus explained "We'll call back when we're clear"

"Alright, take care"

Venus pressed the disconnect button and turned back to the other three. They all nodded at overhearing the news and knew in part now of the danger they had somehow avoided running into themselves. Venus then asked the group next an obvious question.

"Any ideas?"

Nobody replied for a minute; the simple answer was to rush them. But to close in to take out the larger robots first was going to difficult considering the smaller ones were in the way. They didn't have weapons to speak of, but they were agile and their bladed weapons were still serious threats and were a match for Saturn's glaive or Pluto's staff.

"Ranged attack is the only answer" Mercury replied "We'll just have to hope we don't hit their guns"

"Right…well I guess we'll have to do that first" Venus replied before looking to Pluto for an affirmative nod.

She got one and a reply "all three of us?"

Venus simply nodded, then started to elaborate on her new plan. It would be risky, but the first priority was to take out those guns first, without them gone, getting close enough to take out the rest of the robots would be impossible. Her instructions were simple but direct, and in a moment the four senshi knew what they were all going to do. The first of this three act ballet would be Mercury's cue and so she stood up to prepare her next incantation.

"Shabon…Spray!" Mercury ordered, and from her words, misty foam formed instantly and directed itself to cover the hallway with the watery fog that in an instant, blinded the robotic monsters from their attack. Before they managed to work out what had just happened to them, the senshi started act two of their ballet. Venus and Pluto used the cover of the mist to walk out in what would've been plain sight by the blinded robots and commenced their attack.

"Dead…." Pluto started to whisper, concentrating a pink ball of plasma and growing it to the size of a basketball

"Crescent…" Venus flexing her hands forward to form a pistol, the glowing orange ball on the end forming to prepare to fire.

"Scream!"

"Beam!"

At once though the mist, the two balls of light sailed through and broke free of the fog. Unguided, they made lighting speed towards their marks and while they weren't dead center as hoped, they still managed to hit their intended targets. Pluto's dead scream impacted first auto-troop and made the most damage because of the size of the plasma ball. Punching right through the chest armor as though it was butter; it fried the insides instantly and cut off all life to the robot as it tried to aim for the source of the light. Venus's smaller Crescent beam laser made for similar results as it hit the right arm joint and disarmed it of its heavy cannon. It was a half success – the beam was supposed to penetrate the skull – but this was anticipated anyway for the second and final barrage to accomplish.

"Shine Aqua …" Mercury calmly announced bringing her arms to her chest…again concentrating her magic for the desired effect as behind her the swirls started to absorb the mist and form watery portals, which in turn formed three large solid ice arrows- spears.

"…Illusion!" Shouting as her hands pointed forward, launching her projectiles, past the two senshi in front of her and through the fog at mind-blowing speed. All three were more properly sighted since Mercury had more time to concentrate their aim and as a result all three hit their mark. The first impacted on Venus's target; finishing what she started by punching, then destroying the head of the robot, the same could be said on Pluto's target which impacted the skull and simply exploded. The third one was Mercury's target from the start and concentrated on the neck, like Pluto, her aim was on the mark and the icy pillar missile impacted center on the chest and decapitated the robot's ability to think from the body.

When the fog cleared finally, all three of the gun wielding auto-troops had been taken out. With the threat gone, it was time for act three, the final – and longest – step in this battle plan. The smaller robots were not pleased at all that their bigger projectile weapon armed cousins were gone and saw their opportunity for revenge, just standing there like it was not concerning them, were three of them, who were then joined by the fourth member, Saturn, who with her glaive appeared and stood in line with Pluto

"You ready?"

"Yes…teacher" Saturn commented slyly.

At once the two of them started to dash towards their enemy while behind them, Mercury and Venus readied their incantations again to cover the two pole-arm wielding senshi.

"Crescent Beam barrage!"

"Shine Aqua Illusion!"

A hail of icy missiles and laser fire hailed over Saturn and Pluto as they made their first deadly strike, together working in unison to fight. What Saturn said had not the least bit a lie, in their time training, she and Pluto had indeed trained on the finer techniques of applying their skills to their unique accessories and this would be the first real test for them. The first of their number ran straight towards Pluto with both swords in the air to fall upon the elder senshi. She blocked it with her garnet staff and avoided a fatal blow of friendly fire by then jumping up to fly-kick the beast away while starting to drop below the flight path of the first barrage of Mercury's icy projectiles. All four of the spears hit their mark on the first enemy and it quickly dropped like a rock.

Saturn's first attack was part ballet and part fanatical timing. Using the length advantage of her pole arm over the reach of the robot's own weapon, she stabbed its face and pushed hard. Falling backwards now quite dead, its leverage from falling helped Saturn pole vault right over the first kill and delivered a flying kick with her both boots into the face of the second robot which had barely expected it. Briefly the speed had been so great that her skirt had flipped up which Pluto observed and quickly yelled at her,

"Protect your dignity Saturn!"

"Yes Teacher!"

She jumped backwards like Pluto did and back flipped, just high enough to let Venus's barrage of lasers finish off the cracked armored head, but it failed to stop the beast. Once on the ground again and back to where she stood prior to vaulting herself with the glaive, Saturn then picked it up again and charged in close enough to give it a killing slash across the chest armor and bringing this one down once and for all. The robot fell, and this time without compromising her decorum modesty in the process. In the matter of just over a minute, the first half of their remaining enemy had been knocked out cold.

Pluto now back on her feet, rallied against the second of her three kills as it mercilessly thrashed at her, strike by strike banging down on her staff with the hope she couldn't intercept each attempt to strike her body. But practiced she was, and Pluto managed to stop the blade hitting and eventually pushed back enough ground she had lost to make her strike. Using the next strike to her right, Pluto rebounded strongly the strike before she turned fully to let key blade smack into the left side of the torso, cutting off the arm about to follow through on another strike. Its effect was positive, but had didn't halt the auto-troop, merely by the amount of damaged required to accomplish that.

The robot turned to face her and brought its other still functioning blade arm down on the now exposed Pluto. She managed to dodge it, but only by just, her skirt was torn convincingly enough to tell Pluto how close his strike had been. The twisted move incidentally freed her staff and Pluto instantly spun it around in her hands to alternate the ends to meet its sword with her own blade. With only one arm left, it tried to slash across and try to get past her pole-arm, but it proved impossible as Pluto jumped back and let another barrage of icy spears impact the now exposed side to the two other senshi providing cover.

Further damaged, but still determined, the auto-troop lanced down its sword in a deadly blow. Pluto moved not away, but to the opposite the direction of its falling left slash and moved to her right, again barely avoided being hit – this time it chipped off the semi-transparent left shoulder piece – before proceeding to bring her staff home on the back of the neck. Its powerful fighting style was finally defeated and Pluto was still standing as she retrieved her staff embedded in the back of the monsters neck.

"That's how you fight dignified" Pluto proclaimed, despite the rips to her skirt.

"Yes teacher" Saturn observed as she watched and turned to attack her final target. At the same time, the two senshi renewed their attack and ran towards the final two. Behind Saturn and Pluto, Venus and Mercury started to move forward, citing the need to maintain the close proximity needs to support their counterparts and the battle continued further down the hallway. Venus this time only prepared her attack, holding back as well to make sure it was fired as they needed it.

"Crescent…

Saturn approached, this time not charging forward for a repeat of her pole vaulting, but to defeat this enemy with some more gracefulness as her counterpart sensei demanded. In a moment, contact was made with the third attacker, who tried very much what the one Pluto just took down had attempted. Unfortunately for the auto-troop, Saturn kept up, proving that the easy kill she appeared to be was quite the myth. After exhausting a volley attack, it then delivered a powerful dual hit on her staff with enough force that she was actually pushed back a meter from her enemy. Deciding she had enough of playing defense, Saturn went on the offense just then and like her first kill, lanced her glaive ahead of her where she aimed this time for the right arm on the beast. Unlike before though, Saturn jumped to slide underneath it, letting the momentum carry the sharp blade on her pole-arm to its intended destination.

It worked, at the right moment Saturn, having already dodged so many strikes, made her homerun slide and proceeded to remove her enemy of its right sword. Its surprise was two fold, first wondering where the little target went, followed by the sudden disappearance of feeling in the arm that it tried to stand the target. Before it had realized that the enemy had figured out she was behind it, Saturn stabbed her Gliave into its back and ended its existence in one graceful, but subtle-lacking move. At around the same moment Pluto was in a death struggle for control of the fight with the auto-troop she had to face, it was far superior to the two she had felled.

'So they learn' Pluto thought as she struggled as she kept up with the multiple angles the attack was trying to impale, slash and dismember from. The battle was turning into a duel of wits, Saturn was still busy with her own target so she couldn't just stab this one for her. But that's what the others were here for.

"Venus!"

"I'm holding…" Venus struggled as she continued to hold onto the fireball at the end of her extended finger tips, waving it up and down in an attempt to trace the enemy, only for half her movements to place Pluto in the line of sight.

Suddenly the auto-troop did something stupid and kicked Pluto off her feet, falling down to her side, she realized her key-blade was in the right place to deliver a quick blow to its legs. In one quick slash attack, Pluto successfully removed its left leg from the rest of the body which the robot – not realizing the mistake it had just made – retaliated by bringing down its swords on the falling senshi. It was an almost certain kill, but in falling clear, Pluto had at the same time given another senshi a clear shot at its head.

"…Beam!" Venus shouted and released the burning laser shot for a quick, heavy and accurate strike on the armored skull. Typically her beam attack didn't have any more effect than cracking armor, but it's charge time in her hands had created enough power to exceed that limitation and blasted the head of upon impact. That moment came and the head shattered, then exploded before the robot's final attack became an act of gravity, instead of any form of informed forced attack. On the floor, Pluto rolled out of the way just in time to narrowly miss being sliced apart from their deadly blades, but at the cost of half her rear bow. When Pluto got up, the robot was dead, as was the one Saturn was tasked to kill. The total elapsed time was four minutes.

For a moment the four of them breathed relief, with Saturn and Pluto being the most relieved that it was all over. Their small ballet was done and their act in this battle won. With that accomplished, the leader of the group walked the distance back to the waiting police officers and informed them their first aid kits were in reach now.

* * *

The explosion told her that their side was losing, Denisa didn't need to be told by anyone what happened or how it happened. Some fool had shot the ammunition section of the limb and set off one hell of an explosion. It had happened to offend enough and to her was a formal tactic created during the internal wars that annoyed her to death. None the less Denisa felt she was home free, the battle over anyway and with her objective completed with half her forces intact, which she felt would allow her to one up those intelligence officers and prove that only a warrior fought in battles. She kicked the door down on the final door, to then quickly be met by the noise of the outside.

To be exact, Denisa had lead her attack party to the helipad weather hanger, for which she encountered a AS365 Dauphin Helicopter parked further out on the helipad itself. Unbeknownst to her, It had been down for a checkup before a maintenance crew had tried, then abandoned their efforts just minutes ago to get it to fly before she showed up. It had been fixed, rolled out to the pad and almost made ready to fly, but the attempt to get it in the air had failed due to the slow rate in which fuel was pumped, since the pressure in the fuel line didn't anticipate a rapid deployment.

Denisa observed the machine, these 'police officers' required so many things to do everything she could do, or would be able to do with magic if it were so strictly rationed back at base. It was pathetic in her eyes, the machine followed no logic, and to her wasn't even worth destroying with a potion grenade. After observing that this helipad didn't have enough space to teleport everyone; Denisa turned to the lower roof of the building, which along the air ducts and bean pole sticks that shot up the ground, provided plenty of space.

"Come" she ordered her platoon and they proceeded to watch to the edge of the helipad and jump down the 12 feet to the roof of the building. She was here first; her platoon half intact, and she had her objective complete.

"Now to wait for that intelligence officer to arrive" Denisa murmured as she stabbed her sword into the cement roof, and waited.

* * *

Their progress after their brief battle with the blockade had improved a lot. The quartet hadn't encountered any more of those robots, and their movement as a result had not been halted any more than to check the next corner and to see to it that any injured were being treated. It was worrisome to the team as they deepened their assault to the next level and the more and more they went without action similar to before, the more they concerned themselves with ambush.

"Clear!" Pluto said as she checked the floor and saw nobody around. Now it was getting to the point that nobody was injured and the only damage to the building was the footprints those robotic monsters made. As she said it the other three in the group bolted up the flight of stairs and ran as fast as they could to intercept the enemy before he or she or it escaped.

"Nothing" Venus said as she observed the hallway "…something isn't right here"

"I don't think so" Mercury replied "If that blockade was supposed to stop us, then there wouldn't be too much left to stop us…"

"True enough…" Venus replied as she continued her run to the next door, finding it untouched "So where is this enemy then? Have they already made their escape?"

"I don't think so" Mercury continued "I think those blockades were supposed to delay us"

The three senshi all looked at Mercury funny; delay sure, but for what? It didn't matter, with the blockades seemingly defeated, they were on a clear path to catching up with their enemy and if they had an objective here, then it was their job to make sure they didn't get to it. The senshi continued around the corner, again finding an empty corridor with the exception of one minor alteration that all four easily noticed. At the end of the hall on the left wall and the end, both doors had been smashed open. The first was another average office door; the other was the one that lead to the fire escape stairwell. The senshi made their approach to the office door without a hassle. Amongst the seemingly intact hallway, this oddity made everyone return to Mercury's original theory.

Pluto and Saturn took the lead and stopped on either side of the doorframe to look inside, their quick observation only showing the room to be completely dark with only the light from outside going in maybe several meters from the door.

"Clear!" Saturn shouted as she peaked inside again.

"I guess you were right, they must've been after something" Venus spoke as she carefully examined a sign on the left of the door frame, it had been burnt and damaged a but; but the part she could read said '…investigation'

Knowing that they'd have to check this room out; Mercury tapped her earring and activated her hologram visor. Venus and Mercury hesitated for a second at the door, but then slowly moved forward to inspect the surroundings. Venus, whom couldn't see much stayed in the door way and tried to see her way around, but the dark outlines of closets was all she could see. Had Venus processed better sight, she might've spotted the odd outline of a man in the darkest part of the room crouching down, one hand extended, the other holding a glass ball with a potion inside it.

Mercury's visor did catch it, but fatally didn't take too much notice of it as she saw two other people in here, quite obviously victims of the attack. The first of which she noticed was sitting against the overturned table. Mercury at once kneeled down to check the man for vitals, his bleeding seemed to only come from the wound in his abdomen but despite that, she could hear him breathing quite rapidly and upon checking his pulse found it to be just as fast.

"Can you hear me?" Mercury started to speak "I'm Sailor Mercury…I'm here to help you…"

Minoru didn't have a clue how in creation his idolized senshi had come to be inches from him, but he did know that he had been propped up like this on purpose. Despite his captor's belief that he had knocked him out, Minoru had come too only minutes later, if anything than to do with the pain of bleeding wounds. He had been awake for it all, the careful loading of boxes that contained those red and purple tapes, those three weird things coming in and taking the boxes away. But while he remembered all that, he couldn't remember that man himself leaving. Because of this and the knowledge of what he had done to him and his associate, it didn't take too much to work out what was going on. Before she turned fully to ask for Saturn's assistance, the detective grabbed onto the shoulder of the sailor senshi. Mercury was quite surprised to feel him and turned back instantly to see what it was.

"Run…" he gasped

"What?"

"Run…away…"

But before she could ask a second time what he was talking about, Ami felt a sudden, sharp pain in her chest and in her lower back. It was piercing pain, the kind that came suddenly and didn't quite leave once it arrived. Her eyes went wide at once as she suddenly felt the force of whatever caused the pain jolt her forward off her semi-stable kneel. Looking down, she saw it right there, now covered in blood and sticking out of her stomach like a pillar. Sailor Venus saw it too, but was too late to do anything but see her friend and fellow senshi first get hit and then fall over by one of a pair of stony pillars that had come out of the darkness.

"Mercury!" She screamed and started to run forward, but it was a mistake. Venus didn't make it a foot further than the door before she saw before her eyes a crystal ball sail through the air.

From a distant of two feet from her face, the potion grenade detonated sending a fireball eruption that instantly pushed the rushing senshi backwards all the way into a cement pillar on the other side of the corridor while glass shrapnel from the grenade itself punched through her outfit, and marred her exposed skin all over. The blast however was much larger and had also made a larger doorway than before, it pushed the wall away, along with the two senshi hiding behind it. It was a quick explosion by comparison to others tonight, but its effects were just as serious, in mere seconds after the commencement of the explosion, an entire team of senshi had been knocked out cold.

* * *

When the dust had settled from the explosion, Azrael had come out from hiding behind the cabinet he had used. He had returned to double check for something of interest when the senshi arrived on this floor and he felt himself trapped. But with some quick thinking and arranging, his ploy had worked. Not only did he succeed avoiding capture, but now he could lay claim to something that no person in the dark kingdom could say they had been able to; disabling four senshi in a single minute. He knew that it wasn't a kill, even the one on mercury wasn't definite and upon inspection, she was still breathing.

But with their chief healer down, wouldn't that be something to tell his general. But with that thought he remembered that he had been in a hurry to leave. Now leading his auto-troops he had remaining. He arrived onto the roof where, as expected he was greeted with the sight of both the night sky, smoke pillars from fires in the building below them, one or two helicopters in the sky keeping their distance, and Denisa and her half her platoon waiting for him.

"Where have you been?" Denisa asked, she'd been waiting for about five minutes.

"Sorry, I had a little senshi trouble" Azrael explained bluntly "It's solved"

"Solved?"

"One possible kill and three knocked out" he simply boasted "I got Mercury"

"Congratulations…" Denisa spoke before adding "I gather those are the tapes?"

Behind him, the three remaining auto-troops in his command were holding boxes that had the video tapes inside. With that Denisa noted, now he had one-upped her, a warrior, whom did what she was told and completed it.. But he had actually done that and successfully killed a senshi in the process – there was no such thing as 'possible kill' in her language – which wasn't even the objective. And now they would be going back to inform the general; of what? That he, the sneaky spy, had successfully killed a senshi while she, the purebred warrior had not? The arrogance of the man was paramount which spoke in volumes by the fact he hadn't even taken the chance to kill the other three. Azrael had daggers, potion grenades and his own attack spells, so why not add to your success and finish the job?

"Are those the computer disks?" Azrael asked as he walked passed her and over to the auto-troop holding the plastic box full of hard drives. "Very good, you got them all"

"I also got you one of those machines you need to interface them" Denisa spoke boasting of her own accomplishments, not that she could compare to his.

"Really? That'll certainly make the task easier than meditating to them" Azrael said noting the bigger beige box the other auto-troop carried.

'Make it easier? You mean I didn't need to take it?' she screamed in her mind, did his arrogance no know bounds or was it just her being angry. No, he was arrogant, for not finishing off those senshi – with backstabbing tactics no doubt – like he said he had knocked out and now mocking her own initiative as though she didn't know what she was doing. In her mind, her patience had worn its final vein on him. His cunning defeat would make the general side to his ideas after this battle, and then what? After they defeated the senshi, she would be laughed out of the movement for her ideas since they had not accomplished anything. Well maybe it didn't have to be that way, as long as the senshi was dead for sure, it didn't matter who claimed the kill, did it?

She removed her sword that she had planted into the cement roof and turned to face the colonel ranked intelligence officer. It was just that simple, he wasn't even looking at her, so engrossed with the equipment that he had her collect. She was briefly reminded of the coward that went before them, Achen, who had been faithful to the cause until this man sent him to his death. And what good did the information he collect do them? Just like little kids, they whined for more; and they arranged this whole mission to do just that. But what would happen if this information also turned out to be useless? He would just refer to his honest kill and the general would approve another mission to waste auto-troops and colonels.

No, she couldn't let him do that, not when they had so much to lose from following this man's plan of attack. With that, her mind was made up and she raised her sword up to the sky to bring a stabbing blow onto his chest. Before she could bring it down and stab him from behind, he turned quickly, feeling the presence of the sword, but not able to see from where. It didn't matter; in a moment her sword impaled through the aging colonel. His eyes widened in shock just like he had seen the senshi he had injured do, the piercing feeling exceeding every pain he had ever previously felt. It was beyond painful, and then he knew right away, he was lost. Azrael didn't speak, he just saw her expression and even when she pulled the sword clear during his slow collapse to the floor, he remained silent.

When he dropped to the floor and went limp; she took the chance to finish him by grabbing one of her small daggers from her belt of them. from a distance of a few meters away. she pegged it like a dart and it stabbed him square in the back. It instantly caught fire and the body soon followed.

"Well…it looks like the senshi killed you Colonel" Denisa spoke with a sadistic tone "But I got the one that killed you…"

And just like that, Azrael, colonel of intelligence and master spy of the dark kingdom was dead, soon to become ashes. His accomplishments, his victories, his advice and his experience all void from the conscious mind of everyone around him. Denisa didn't wrap the same kind of philosophy on it; to her the deed was done and the reckless, arrogant, selfish and cowardly spy was dead. It wasn't betrayal she instantly told herself, it was the opposite, disposing of wasteful commanders was something all leaders did and Azrael hadn't been an effective commander. It was that simple.

"Well, time to head home then" Denisa turned around to face her auto-troops, all of them. She reached down to depress the watch like device she had strapped onto her arm, it didn't serve the function for measuring time, but rather it was a beacon. Upon pressing it, she could at her own will create the portals to move herself back to the mountain base without the hassle of having someone open the portal like she was suppose to for Achen. It would've been a perfect departure without any further distractions, but she wasn't awarded that justice.

"Stop right there!"

Denisa turned her head to face the helipad. Standing in a row like some sort of display of force, there were five senshi looking down on her. Finally Denisa and they met, and not a minute sooner.

"This building is the home to people who protect and serve the community, and you have no right to harm them!" Sailor moon make her announcement clear "in the name of the moon, I'll punish you"

"Sailor moon…so this was who their leader was" Denisa muttered before yelling her own battle cry "I'm afraid your too late too try stopping me senshi…but we'll meet again soon!"

As she yelled, Denisa detached two of her potion grenades from the back of her belt and looked at what to throw them against. Mars, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune poised with their commander ready to jump down and surround their enemy, but it was not to be. In an instant, Denisa pegged the grenades with one arm with the act of her battle cry covering her attack. The two grenades sailed high into the air before gravity took over and with the senshi not even noticing them fly by, they both hit at the same time and exploded. Not only did the grenades itself explode, but by hitting the body of the parked helicopter, the grenades detonated within inches of its fuel tank, which promptly added force in a far more violent secondary explosion. That explosion in turn caused the expanding fireball to reach into the hanger where the small fuel container had been placed and in a moment it too became a fireball in its own right.

The resulting explosions rivaled, and then exceeded the force that Mars's accident shot caused and didn't stop there for over a minute. From the sky and around the area, the fireball was for a moment an instant sun that lit up the area. The force of the explosion caught the girls from their left and couldn't be resisted for all its intense power. They flew, either a few feet before crashing back down on the hard helipad deck, or in Jupiter's case, further up before hitting the deck at a squirrelly angle before rolling off the edge of the deck that hung over the side of the building. In half a minute; the second team of senshi was knocked out of action.

"Well, I guess that finishes them" Denisa spoke as she grabbed her sword and slid it back into her sheath "Now to get out of here"

Denisa pressed the button on her wristwatch-like device and waited as several circles formed over her head. When they reached the critical point in which their gravity took over and she simply floated off the ground and through the portal that offered itself. The auto-troops followed suit and in a minute, all the portals had collected their passengers and shrank back into nothingness. The battle was over.

"Crazy pyromaniac…" Mars muttered as she came to, rubbed her head and looked around to the others "you two alright?"

Over to her left, Neptune and Uranus were messed up, but at least looking better than what Mars felt. The latter was the first to reply

"Yeah…I'm still breathing"

In another minute, Sailor moon and Neptune reported in and stood up, it didn't take them too long to get their bearings straight before they realized one of they're number was missing.

"Where's Jupiter?" Sailor Moon panicked as she quickly surveyed the roof below. After only seeing small fires and rubble everywhere, she shouted out her name when she realized her friend disappear over the side. The answer came in the opposite direction.

"Down here!" a shout came from Mars's right, at once all of them heard it and ran to the source of it.

The edge of the helipad was a large set of net baskets that lined the three sides of the landing platform, the two biggest were for where there was nothing but a void for six stories. To her great fortune, Jupiter had crashed into the net and was just laying there.

"Hanging about there?" Uranus noted slyly "You alright?"

"I can get up…think I broke my arm on the edge rail" Jupiter replied, wincing as her pain reminded her

"Alright, we'll get you out"

It took the combined effort of Mars, Uranus and Neptune, but the three of them managed to pull her out of the netting and back onto the solid ground of the helipad. When it was all said and done, Usagi inspected the wound. It was indeed broken in two places by her upper and lower right arm and her shoulder further had been dislocated during her odd angle impact with the helipad. Uranus did her the favor of popping it back in place, but nothing else could be done for the moment, Usagi could heal her later but right now, they had to get out of here.

Before they could decide on their next course of action, it was decided for them, Mars's communicator started chiming.

"Mars here"

"Mars, are you guys alright?" Luna screamed "We saw that explosion"

"We're alright, Jupiter has a busted up arm…sorry to say it…but…they got away…"

"We'll worry about that later…" Artemis spoke, interrupting Luna. This answer surprised everyone. Mars decided to ask the obvious, and got a quite chilling answer.

"Mercury got hit badly" Artemis spoke "Mercury is hurt pretty bad…"

* * *

The last hour at the hospital couldn't have been described as anything shy of the paradigm of chaos and panic. It started with seeing the news report and knowing that their proximity to site gave them responsibility, it insured that within minutes both Saeko and Hiroyoshi were at once ordering the emergency room into full readiness. Their reaction time couldn't have been have been more helpful in starting to prepare for the worse, and paradoxically, the chaos. Judging the situation for what it was, the two senior doctors called in everyone, not just people who could be called in as backup, but every senior doctor, surgical team and spare nurse that could be called in. The following preparation felt like a call for battle, but it soon became apparent to everyone that this understatement was mere infant to the reality of the situation.

Even before the final explosion on the rooftop, ambulances were taking in survivors of various conditions. 'High, low and not' quickly became the only words to describe the three types of wounded that came in, the former being the one for critical and the latter being ones they could wait on. At first; there had been a lot of mistakes – this being from the misguided underestimation of the number of critical cases – but over the course of the hour, the number of high priority cases rose beyond expectations. From the start, Saeko had been assigned to triage and noted the increasing veracity of the attack as more people were brought in. Her job had become not merely a matter of assessing the wounded, but to decide their priority, to go into one of the limited number of surgical rooms that were all in use, to send upstairs where a helicopter was taking cases to Tokyo general, of if they could be treated out of surgery by the residents and other clinical doctors, or if they could just wait.

And a lot of people were waiting; with only three doctors – with more coming – being able to access triage, the workload was almost overwhelming and with every critical case, the doctors had only to bite at deciding which one was more critical than the other. Fighting with this decision came hard, harder when the most critical near death cases arrived after the operating rooms were full with relatively lower priority cases. In amongst the chaos, mistakes were made, and in the process, the doctors failed on an additional four people who had to wait for surgery. Saeko hadn't ever in her life seen something like this, not in her twenty year career, no earthquake was this destructive, no fire, no car accident, nothing like this had ever come to her and her ability to handle it was hanging on by a thread.

She ran back to the entrance of the emergency room when the alarm sounded again for the arrival of ambulances. She had been making this run back and forth for over an hour and was glad that she wore decent shoes. Her tasking and speed in which she ran assured her assignment to first ambulance to arrive in this batch. The doors burst open as the first paramedic started speaking without her insistence.

"Critical condition!" he yelled before jumping out and grabbing the end of the stretcher and pulling as his counterpart pushed, they had been doing this three times tonight, and this was their second critical case. Saeko got a good look at the patient for the first time and realized that at times like this, Critical condition was a harsh understatement. Messed up, pale and with a hole in her abdomen that spoke of how badly she had been hit. She none the less started asking her questions

"Blood pressure?"

"92 over 57" the paramedic replied, which told Saeko just how much blood she had left from her bleeding, barely enough to even live.

"Pulse?"

"Pulse is 43...really weak"

She continued for several more questions, all the while running into the building again as the paramedics did their best for their patient by not delaying a second. Upon their entry into the emergency ward, they looked for wherever there was space. They had long since abandoned any logical order of things and trying to accommodate everyone in triage was impossible. Stopping between two beds in use by other seriously wounded patients, They finished the assessment, Saeko had already decided that she would bump this girl to the top of the list if she could; she wasn't going to live longer than five minutes at this rate.

"Blood type?"

"No idea"

"What do you mean?" Saeko shouted angrily

"Her ID and wallet were burnt beyond recognition" the paramedic yelled back "all I know is she is a inspector by the shoulder boards"

"Where did you find her?" She asked, merely because she had to keep tabs on the wounded count

"Basement car park" the medic continued "she must've been one of the first wounded because that's were the whole thing started apparently"

"Almost ninety minutes…" Saeko spoke a gasp. Her decision to send her though was marred by the absence of that important information, by the time she could be tested for blood – of which she had very little – she would be as good as dead. Before her decision was made up to let her go, another stretcher stopped next to this one and patent on it almost screamed.

"Ayaka!"

Saeko almost felt shock and turned around to see a man with a less threatening, but serious wound similar to this woman. He was also a police inspector judging by his uniform rank, and his eyes seemed to be more shocked at her patient than at his own wounds. The obvious question of course was the most critical;

"Do you know her?"

"Yes!" Minoru replied.

He had been on the third ambulance which had been made to hold back as it took on less serious patients. He understandably had been alright with it, despite the pain he felt; his wound was minor enough to not merit surgery ahead of cases like his fellow detective, as he saw right here. Saeko couldn't believe her luck; which decidedly had been absent tonight.

"Do you know anything about her?" Saeko demanded at once "age, weight, blood type?"

"Uh…" Minoru at once started to recall those three figures; his morphine had impaired his judgment a bit, but fought past that for both the doctor and his fellow police officer "29 years…49 kilograms, I guess…A positive"

"Thank you" Saeko replied at once, almost hugging the man before looking up at who had brought him in, but the doctor who had done so had already disappeared, running back to the emergency room entrance. Ignoring that she turned back around to her patient, she quickly wrote on her crash-card the missing detail, with that done, she would straight away get her to the surgery rooms as the current situation rules required. At once Saeko looked around for a spare nurse.

"Ryou!" Saeko yelled to the nurse who had been running back to the ambulance line outside.

"Yes Doctor!" the young nurse at once turned on her heels and ran to assist.

Without having to be asked, she took the end of the stretcher and kicked off the wheel locks to help start moving this patient. Their ability to move the cart was a haphazard process as they had to dodge not only rushing staff, but other stretchers that had been parked in the hallway for all manner of reasons. Running down to the operating rooms, this particular hallway had all the other gurneys with the highest priority cases waiting for then next room. To Saeko's fortune, other cases had been less critical than the one she had and allowed her to place Ayaka over three similar cases. No doctor objected, both her seniority at the hospital and the obvious nature of the wounds her patient had insured their consent. When the next room became free, Saeko and her assistant nurse at once wheeled her into the room.

"Take good care of her" Saeko explained at once "She's waited almost two hours for help!"

The surgeon nodded, briefly asking questions as he quickly had been changing out his tools and gown with the speed of a racing team pit crew. He hadn't had the chance to change out of his casual clothes properly and was still wearing his trousers from his aborted date. When he was satisfied with all the information he needed, Saeko backed away, watching as her associate go to work on this patient. She had not known that the surgeon had already lost a patient today, making him slightly concerned about the chances this woman had given the extent of her wounds. Finished from her immediate task, Saeko went back to the Emergency room. Ryou had long since ran back to where she was needed and left the senior clinical doctor to walk back as the stress from the job started to drain her stamina.

"Saeko!" someone yelled, this perked her attention up and made her focus.

With her moment of relief gone, she started to return to the normal chaos that was surrounding them. At the nurses station, Hiroyoshi was on the phone and had called over Saeko to listen to what he had to say once he was finished with the conversation. From what she could understand by his side of the talk, he was on the phone with someone over at a hospital on the other side of the bay. When he was finished, he hung up the phone and turned to her.

"That was a three way call between Doctor Suzuki over at Kiba public and the on scene triage manager" he started to explain "they have removed the last of the wounded and they said that the only ones left in the building…are going to be left for forensics"

The statement was still chilling to both doctors, despite their best efforts and earnest attempts, people had still died before paramedics had even gotten to them. Neither wanted to imagine the toll would be, anything higher than zero was unacceptable to them. In fifteen years; Saeko had seen people die from car accidents and death from various aliments. But tonight was nothing like those other times, the hallways were crowded with wounded, some mild like the majority of them, but some had come close to death.

"Moving on from that…" Hiroyoshi continued "Suzuki said that his hospital is online to take some of out wounded, both helicopters they own are en-route…"

"Why cant any of the helicopters just go to the police station?" Saeko asked, with the ones that her hospital and Tokyo general already shuttling back and forth, a third set of helicopters would grantee a air traffic control nightmare over the use of their single helipad.

"Minato central police station doesn't have one anymore" Hiroyoshi replied bluntly "according to the on site triage manager, someone blew up a parked Helicopter on its pad"

"Blew it up!"

Hiroyoshi ignored continuance of that topic and spoke on "Administration said it is going to help coordinate the helipad use between Kiba and Tokyo general…but I want you to help organize who of our wounded will go to Kiba, I've already got Hatori on the task for doing the ones going to Tokyo general…he's taking any of the less critical of the high priority ones…I just want you to do low priority, the trip to Kiba is three times longer in a helicopter than to just Tokyo"

Technically Hiroyoshi was Saeko's junior, and his authority to order her around would have been seen by others as an insulting measure of respect that was awarded, not only in their culture, but in the profession in which they both served. But for the moment, Saeko neither cared or worried about the formalities applied and ignored it just as she did every other time they talked. The senior Mizuno didn't have much in the way of respect for the rules to professional communication in an emergency situation either.

"Alright" Saeko nodded and walked off with her new assignment. Low priority had taken on a new meaning in the previous hour, and it covered a broad range of subjects.

"Ryou!" Saeko yelled, calling back her assistant nurse.

"Yes!" she replied from the other side of the room and ran back

"I need…four patients….that can be airlifted across the bay" she started to explain her instructions "Ask Hiiragi and Sakuraba to help you move the ones I pick"

"Alright" she nodded before turning to call on her two fellow nurses.

Saeko went to work; for the next five minutes, she inspected the crash cards and asked questions of four patients that were able to travel by helicopter and fit the criteria of low priority by the new definition for this emergency. Mainly because of her luck and the direction she was checking, one of the four that Saeko ended up coming back to was Minoru. He had been so helpful with the information that saved that young woman's life and Saeko felt, despite professional obligations, which he could at least be rewarded by given the first ride over, not that he needed that as a reason, his injury alone suffixed the necessity.

The procession of wheeled stretchers started down the hallway to the lifts, despite their size, only two at a time could go up, Saeko waited as the other two nurses took the first lift up. While waiting, she decided to talk to Minoru, if anything to distract him from his pain, and her from waiting.

"How do you feel?"

"Pretty bad" Minoru said honestly "I think the painkillers are wearing off Doc…"

"Mizuno…Saeko is okay" she replied, applying her bedside manners "How long do you think you can hold on?"

"I don't know Saeko" Minoru suddenly groaned "But I'll do my best until Kiba"

Saeko knew by the looks of the man, he might just be able to such a thing, but at his unasked insistence, she gave him another dose of painkillers. Helicopter rides were fun, except when you were injured.

Do you remember what happened?"

Minoru merely nodded, when he figured he had nothing to lose in explaining; he started "Well, we were heading up the last of our investigation work for the day…"

"Investigation?"

"Yeah…I work on the taskforce assigned to look at that senshi battle the other day" Minoru started to laugh "real irony huh? We finish up on that for the day and the same damn enemy that attacks them, shows up at our door"

Saeko didn't say anything, but upon hearing the word senshi, she froze up. Suddenly being reminded of them and consequently reminded of her daughter; she quickly had more questions of her own. It hadn't even occurred to her that this was the kind of situation that might involve them; she had just been too busy with other things to think about it. But if that was the case; where was Ami? If this was an attack, did she go to the police station in response? That question was simple enough to ask the man.

"Did the senshi show up?" she blurted out

"Oh yeah…" Minoru replied with a slur in his voice, his painkillers finally taking effect "apparently all of them came…I talked to a SWAT team guy…he said he saw five senshi, and I saw the other four myself…its pretty rare to see them all out in force"

Before he could go on, the elevator doors opened up and the doctor wheeled her patient in for the ride to the helipad. When her patient and the one Ryou had wheeled in was secure, the doors closed and the climb up started.

"Who did you see?" Saeko asked him.

"Pretty sure the other two by the door were Pluto and Saturn…only they carry weapons…pretty sure the third one was Venus…her long blond hair is hard to miss…" Minoru recited his trivial knowledge to the doctor. Had she known exactly what his function was within the police taskforce, she might've found this a bit disconcerting. Saeko however, not thinking then asked;

"What about Mercury?"

Minoru looked up at her strangely, it was certainly a weird thing to say considering that was the very person he was about to mention. But he reluctantly ignored it for the moment and answered.

"Yeah, I saw her…she and Venus was coming in to check on us I guess…" Minoru said "All my years working on the taskforce, never thought I would see her in person"

"What were they doing?"

Minoru frowned as he answered "I guess they were seeing if me and Kenji were alive…but…well I tried to warn her…but I was still pretty groggy"

"Warn her?"

"Yeah…it was an ambush…" minoru explained "…I think the guy was just waiting for them…my hole here is nothing compared to what Mercury got…she got a stone pillar or whatever…right through her back…"

* * *

_Author's commentary: From the start, I wanted to envisioned this battle over the last few chapters to be a senario were the senshi wouldnt quite win. While its quite easy to write a curb-stomp battle, in this situation at least, i wanted the senshi to fight almost as equals with an enemy that wasnt afraid of hurting people. More importantly as i started to develop this story, i wanted this battle to be __where they did everything right, but that they made an honest mistake which cost them the mission._


	10. Chapter 9: Damage Assessment

**Chapter 9: Damage Assessment**

The mood around the table was a solemn one, not for the success of the mission, but for the cost of it. The general mused that it was the price of war – a fare that he had long since come accustomed to paying in his many years – but there were times when it felt like the charge had exceeded the price offered. Standing in front of him was the sole surviving commander of the two he had sent to the fort, reporting to her dismay that the spy master had fallen in battle. She described his final moments, having arrived to the meeting point, but the senshi ambushed him from behind and hit a lucky strike on one of his grenades, blowing him up in the process.

The only consolation that Denisa had offered was reported, with distinct pride, that she had avenged her often disagreeable counterpart. It was little consolation to the General however, despite the news that the warrior before him might have just accomplished his original objective. She didn't have the conviction of a killer when she reported her kill, so at best it was an unconfirmed kill, but at best, a senshi was now out of the game.

"He wasn't made for fighting" Denisa reported, "a critical mistake like that, and his depletion of forces was tragic, only three of his auto-troops returned alive, and running from his enemy like he did…I'm said to say was a mistake and any warrior would've done it another way"

Denisa had worked out a pretty decent story to backup her side. Nobody would know what really happened, the auto-troops didn't speak or think beyond their programmed functions and absent an orb to collect their memories and she could simply reset them to wipe the records away of her ultimate betrayal. She had accomplished this already; because of the way she had planned the extraction, Denisa had made sure that by the time she appeared in the basement of the hotel inn, all the auto-troops had no data of her crime.

The general looked over to the prize, three cardboard boxes of what were called VHS tapes, and a big beige colored metal box on top of which was a container with a large number of small silver boxes with handles on the end. This for the dark kingdom's greatest spy master, it seemed such an ironic exchange for intelligence. But in a moment of dark thoughts; the general had to count his fortune. Azreal had been out of his depth with this assignment, its mortal consequences were quite obvious, but its tactical implications were greater, had the original plan gone ahead, with both spies going, he might've lost both. It was not that Vita was by no means an underachiever in combat – one does not make the rank of colonel without having fought his or her share of battles – but if Denisa had described the situation as he imagined it faithfully, then his loses would've been higher.

"He was our kingdom's proudest officer" the general said in a moment of aged and poetic wisdom "Like all officers who meet their fate like warriors"

That irked Denisa, had she not said that he was no warrior? she jested "But…he died in combat…with his back turned to the enemy…no warrior dies like that"

"But he died for the sake of the kingdom" the general spoke forcefully, using his tone to dictate that the time of harsh comments had past "a man who fights for the beliefs we hold is a warrior, even if he does not carry a sword or shield…and despite your beliefs, the definition in my book will not change"

She was silent, thinking of the words to rebut such a flawed argument.

"Denisa…you've done well" the general focused on her properly now "but this loss will be one that sets us back more than the results you've garnered"

'Amazing…' Denisa thought, that even after telling him straight faced that his subordinate died a cowardly way, he still admired the man for his semi-existent traits and virtues. It was like he didn't care for the kill she claimed – even if it wasn't hers – there wasn't anyway to dispute Azrael's demise and despite all that had been accomplished and everything that had been done, his death occupied the space the praise she wanted in the mind of the general. He gave her no chance to obtain this, at once he turned to face the woman whom now would have to not only face the news of her mentor's loss, but from this moment onwards, carry the burden of not only the demands of the general to work, but the legacy of her teacher.

The general turned to Vita only had to say simple words to her "I'm sure you know what I expect from you Colonel, your teacher taught you well…and now you need to apply what has been passed on to you"

"I understand" Vita bowed her submissive understanding

The greater minds senior in the kingdom would see his death as a senseless demise and would focus now on the successor; to not only to see if she was a worthy student to the spy master, but to maintain the reputation of a now dead professional intelligence officer. In the meantime however. the general would make sure of it; Denisa nor would anyone speak ill of the man and his sacrifices. Vita stepped forward to inspect the equipment, she knew what to do and how to do it. But where to start was beyond her imagination, she figured the tapes she had placed were a start, nowhere else felt like a place to work.

"It's going to….take me awhile general…I'm nowhere near the speed at what Azrael could do this in"

"Finding the information is more important than finding the speed" the general spoke "take the time you need…but do not waste a second more than your teacher would on unnecessary things"

"Yes general" Vita replied

With that, the general left the room and Denisa to look over the younger colonel to her task.

"Do you even know what you're going to look for in this pile of junk?" Denisa replied

"Yes" Vita replied, instantly adopting one trait that Azreal had adopted when dealing with those not appreciating of their work. It distantly worried her that she didn't have him to hide behind anymore, but she felt that it was not the time to cower behind walls or the general to make Denisa respect her, if she was going to start preserving the honor of her fallen teacher, she had to start now. Ignoring the warrior standing over her, she inspected and confirmed all the tapes were accounted for and counted the purple marker tapes had been taken with them, a measure in case the senshi wondered how they located the tapes.

She next inspected the hardware and data that Denisa recovered, it was more than she hoped, everything was here, she counted in brief all the hard discs were accounted for and she even had the luxury of one of the machines themselves. She didn't tell the warrior that she didn't need it and with proper adaption of the technique for the orb, made things like computers and tape players redundant. It however would aid her in working out how they all sequenced.

"this is good work" Vita replied, giving honest curiosity to the colonel, along with the ignorance she had to display to stupid comments, she now had to also complement total idiots for doing the right or wrong job, a task that Azreal had been sure to teach her.

"Well, I have a hot bath calling for me…" Denisa spoke and walked out.

Vita looked over the equipment and decided that their secrets wouldn't open up to her just now, it was the start of a long process she was sure wouldn't begin if she didn't start now.

* * *

Things became a lot smoother once the helicopters from Kiba started ferrying patients out of the hospital and made progress in freeing up the beds and operating rooms in Juban to work on the most serious cases. The number of wounded had stopped coming in half an hour after Kiba started to work and the doctors and nurses all felt relief, when it was all over they knew, they could look back and be able to look at their efforts with some sense of accomplishment, thought not all of it admirably. The deaths of six patients under their care would be haunting them for weeks to come; they had failed them, but their actions did save a lot more from that fate. It had been a long shift, and it wouldn't be over till the last patient had been bandaged up.

Despite her relief, at the same time, Saeko had been filled up her head with an equal amount of fear from her unconscious elements screaming at her to find out what had happened to her daughter. But she didn't know a single thing, just the words of the injured police detective had given her not a cause to speculate, but cause to outright panic that only her professional demeanor held back from allowing her to come apart in a irrational series of stunts surely unexplainable as they were unacceptable. She wanted to call home, see if Ami was alright, and failing that, call everyone Ami ever knew to find out what happened. But Saeko couldn't abandon her post, and her triage duties had evolved to become something of a flight deck manager as she was promptly reassigned to stay on the roof, directing stretchers to helicopters like Kiba's pair of new Eurocopters, the older Sikorsky from Tokyo general hospital and their own hospital's Bell-206.

The out of place role of marshalling the various patients to their respective helicopters had put her a long way from the nearest telephone, which had been put into constant use with downstairs as Hiroyoshi was shouting up to her on the phone to align them into two queues and updates on the status of things downstairs. Despite the rush and lack of planning, it was accomplished amazingly well and when a helicopter from another hospital landed, the patient going to the respective location was wheeled out and loaded aboard in a process that was down to three minutes, a marvel of what would be later noted as a feat in on the fly planning by the doctors and staff at Juban. But it hadn't stopped Saeko making herself loose track of the situation from getting out of hand. When the activity on the helipad slackened off to an easier pace, Saeko Mizuno demanded Hiroyoshi to send her relief.

Upon the arrival of the junior intern, it freed up her to return downstairs where it was both warmer – a gusting wind on the deck made her white lab coat entirely useless in the colder December air – and put her in range of a telephone. Her ride down the lift had been a quiet few minutes among chaos, for almost ninety minutes; their day had been one endless cycle of panic and confusion. Now it was calming down, the panic was starting to get under control and the staff was no longer complaining about the visions of endless numbers of incoming patients. When the lift came back down to her level, Saeko made her way out just before the lift became occupied with another transferee. The critical cases had all been handled and now it was simply the ones that could be treated without immediate surgery.

"Doctor Mizuno!" someone shouted from the nurse's station where at that moment, her rest had abruptly ended and she was back on the job, her tired, but still active legs started running again, dodging like a good athlete all the objects in the way to the place she was needed. The nurse's station was empty save two of three juniors whom were on the phones talking to all manner of people, in front was a pile of clipboards and papers that had been piling up since the emergency started. With the typical filing for patient data in collapse, the nurses were now trying to catch up on the desk job end of their work. It was still busy, with nurses and junior residents all working now in unison on their patients and ones who had been waiting for treatment for over an hour. Standing in the center like the captain of a ship damaged by fire, was Hiroyoshi; looking the worst for wear after an excitable night on the job.

"How are things upstairs?" Hiroyoshi asked, business first was his prerogative policy at the moment, his patience had worn thin as constant delays, mistakes being made and death did not humor doctors in a crisis.

"We're doing a lot better, the turn around time on helicopters is slowing down though, and one of the Kiba pilots told me that they are talking turns at refueling"

"What about the Tokyo helicopter?"

"They are running out of fuel too, but we've sent all the critical patients to them by now" Saeko reported "they are doing a pretty good job considering…"

"Well, I was on the phone with Tokyo and kiba ten minutes ago" Hiroyoshi pronounced the bad news "another patient died before they got her to the table, everyone at Kiba is alive…the toll is going to be pretty bad by morning, but I think we're past the worst of it"

The two of them agreed silently, five patients so far on their end, plus the reported six on site at the police station would mark this terrorist attack…what else could they think of at a time like this, as the bloodiest in recent memory, not even senshi battles–

"Hiroyoshi, has anyone reported in any teenagers injured?" Saeko, instantly – and a split second later regretted – asked

"Teenagers?" Hiroyoshi asked suddenly "What do you mean?" he hadn't seen every case going through, but he imaged from a quick glimpse of his emergency room floor that nobody else beside the police station staff had been affected.

"I heard from a detective that there was a pair of injured teenagers" Saeko half lied, it was a wafer thin lie with the truth exposed very easily but Hiroyoshi however didn't know what would make her lie to his face and decided to answer in kind. To Saeko it appeared important, and his brief curiosity died out when his logic dictated the idea out of existence.

"I haven't heard of any reports, but I can call up some of the other hospitals" he paused to take a good look at his associate "…are you okay?"

"I'm alright…I just need a breather" Saeko replied, now honest again

"Well, how about you take a minute in your office, when you've had a drink or something, come back and I'll see if I have anything"

Hiroyoshi pated her on the back and directed her to her own office, it was about as gracious an offer the fellow doctor could give her as she walked off to take a rest. It wasn't really professional of Saeko to abandon her duties, even she didn't have any for the moment, but it did give her the chance to exercise the demons in her head of their questions and impending fear of her imaginative answers. Upon entering her office, she closed the door behind her and in the almost dark room she rushed to her desk and flipped on the desk lamp and picked up her phone and pressed number three on her auto dial list. While one and two being respectively were by default the administration desk and emergency room nurse station, number three was one of only two personal numbers on her 10 button list.

It rang, but for three attempts Saeko kept getting the answering machine. Her own familiar tone repeating back telling all who called her house that she was sorry she couldn't be at the phone at this moment and asked that they leave a message for her. Well, it wasn't the worst indication Saeko told herself as she reached down and looked for her bag, in a minute she had hung up and went to pick up her bag off one of the two client chairs she had in her office, half a minute of salvaging though the many contents a middle aged woman carries, she found her pocket-sized address notebook. She flipped it over until she found the first number, she carefully dialed it. Despite her daughter's belief that her mother didn't keep track of her friends, this had simply not been the case, inside she had, four numbers, all relating to her friends. She tried the first one; it rang only twice before it was picked up

"Aino residence" spoke a gruff voice on the other end, it had to be Minako's father,

"Oh hello, this is Doctor Mizuno..." she started in her professional tone before adding "…Ami's mother"

"Oh…hello" he cleaned up his gruffness and started speaking normally "how can I help you?"

"I'm looking for my daughter, is she over visiting Minako?"

"No...she isn't" he replied before adding "and before you ask…no, Minako isn't here, she has some big league explaining to do, she was suppose to be home an hour ago"

That remark caught her by surprise, she had heard at length from Ami how humble the Aino family was to her when you had something respectable to say, but that disappeared in the tone of his voice, just after he had erased it upon hearing the word 'doctor'

"That's alright…thank you"

"Bye" he simply replied and hung up

She didn't know how to take her brief encounter with the Aino family; just that they must have had the same concern. It would've dawned on her that this might've been how she would react if she didn't know what she did, but the moment was lost on her as her panic continued to escalate, Ami wasn't at home and now she knew Minako was also not home. That pretty much confirmed what he said it was, they were at the scene of the battle. But the battle was over, so where were they? The next number on the list which said Tsukino was too hard to make out, wear and tear on notepads tended to smudge numbers and she couldn't tell the last three digits out of they were a 3, 6, 8 or 9. Saeko then tried the next number, dialing it in; she waited almost ten rings before someone picked up.

"Hino Temple" spoke a older but more serious voice.

"Oh hello, this is Doctor Saeko Mizuno...from Juban hospital" she started again in her professional tone "is there a Rei Hino at the residence?"

"I'm sorry Doctor Mizuno" he replied after a second "She is currently out, would you like to leave a message?"

"No, that's alright…" Saeko continued on, "Thank you for that information"

Saeko said her goodbyes and in a few seconds she hung the phone up to look at the door. For a moment she was hoping the answer would just walk on in like some sort of miracle; she wasn't at her friends. The last number was for Makoto Kino, but Saeko hazarded a guess that that if Sailor Mars, Venus and Sailor moon were all at the battle, it wouldn't take a genius with the title of doctor on his or her name to deduce that Sailor Jupiter was probably not home. There were no other numbers, not even the ones for the other friends, so she had nothing. It was a wasted five minutes for empty accomplishment and so resigned to failure, Saeko picked herself up and walked out of her office and back to the nurse station.

Upon her arrival, she saw Hiroyoshi on the phone talking to someone while four interns had taken over the junior residents seats and were filing the paperwork. Saeko waited for Hiroyoshi to finish after she worked out who it was he was talking to.

"Tokyo General has two cases involving teenagers" Hiroyoshi replied "Two males, they were in the lobby after being brought in something when the explosions knocked them out"

Saeko nodded and continued to remain quiet. Well it wasn't like she was expecting them to have the answers she was looking for. Despite the nature of the supposed wound, there was no report matching the supposed wounds she thought her daughter got, then again they would've noted the arrival of senshi, wouldn't they? Hiroyoshi saw it in her eyes that the answer that she had expected hadn't been the one she was looking for.

"Is something the matter?" Hiroyoshi asked

As they talked, in the background, one of the intern nurses picked up the phone after it had rung for half a minute "Juban Secondary Hospital, Emergency Room…"

"She wasn't at home?" he questioned "are you sure?"

"I don't know where she is but…" Saeko continued on "I've tried everyone I know, I don't know where Ami is…"

"Well, she can't have been around there can she?" Hiroyoshi replied

"No, but…" Saeko replied but was interrupted by the intern.

"Doctor Mizuno?" the intern interrupted the two doctors "I have a Doctor Setsuna Meioh on the phone looking for you"

Saeko looked at the intern with alarm and then at Hiroyoshi with surprise, he simply nodded to take the call, not that she needed permission from her to do so. The name instantly rang a bell and she didn't need to think twice when she figured out where Ami might be.

"Doctor Mizuno" she repeated into the telephone receiver

"I got a call from the Hino temple a few minutes ago…" Setsuna spoke, quite tiredly over the phone, but didn't go into dramatics and continued on "please rest assured, your daughter is safe with us"

"Is she alright?" Saeko instantly spoke, a touch too loudly. Aside from her, Hiroyoshi looked down at the intern and gave her the motion to get out of the seat for her senior.

"She's safe" Setsuna repeated, hoping to not go into details "please…please be outside the north entrance in a few minutes…Someone will be there to pick you up"

"Who?"

"Just be there in three minutes, I have to help my nurses out" Setsuna replied.

Saeko couldn't rationalize why she was pretending to be a doctor, but speaking in code was probably the only way – she assumed correctly – Setsuna got her through to her in the first place. Had it been any other enquiry, she would've been hung up on.

"I see…" Saeko continued on "Thank you"

She put the receiver down on the phone holder and stood up again, briefly relieved of her constant standing, she relinquished the desk back to the intern. Saeko only had to look up to Hiroyoshi before he made his decision

"Go" Hiroyoshi spoke before she had the courage to ask.

"But what…"

"We can handle things here…" Hiroyoshi replied "Go see what's wrong with her"

Saeko didn't know what words best described her gratitude, none came out and rather she darted back down to the office to pick up her bag and coat. For the second time, Saeko made for a hasty departure, but after some quick irrational thinking, she detoured and went back past the paramedics equipment storage. The room had been used all night for obtaining supplies and had first aid kits of the type ambulances carried. Among a number of them, Saeko took a medium sized white bag and ran out, ignoring the clerical requirement to sign out for it. Saeko had correctly guessed that Ami was at no hospital, and that she had to be at that house on the edge of town, it was the only place they could've gone too.

The white bag she now lugged was a first aid kit with a little more than Band-Aids and disinfectant, if Setsuna's serious tone told her anything, it was that Ami wasn't simply bruised. In another few minutes, Saeko made her way out the door of the north entrance of the hospital and back into the cold air she had escaped fifteen minutes ago. It didn't take her long to identify the car she was looking for, which blinked its high beam on for a second. Saeko ran across the street and climbed into the passenger side seat quite clumsy, thanks to carrying her two bags, at the wheel was Uranus.

"Doctor Mizuno" she nodded, sporting a headband that had been quickly wrapped. It took her a moment to notice that she hadn't transformed back into her civilian form. When she closed the door, Uranus waited not a second longer to put her car into gear and speed off down to the main road.

* * *

Half an hour later, Saeko was now guided by the oldest senshi down the hallway and into a room at the end. Had there not been so much attention on the patient lying on it, Saeko would've probably been amazed the number of lamps all around the room along with the dolls. But on the bed, Saturn was at work trying to heal Mercury while Mars kept both their patient relaxed and helped Saturn as she 'operated'. But it was here that things started to make no sense, despite what Saeko had been told by that detective, Ami's wounds – at least from her instant analysis – was far less fatal than she had been lead to believe. But at the same time, it didn't take long to note that it seemed like every spare towel in the house had been placed on the bed to soak in what appeared to be a lot of blood, it was the kind of evidence of bleeding consistent with what she had believed had happened.

"Ami!" She rushed to the bed to see closer hand what had happened.

Saeko saw for the first time without descriptions from third parties the extent of her daughter's wound, or at least what remained of it. At present it was just a diminishing puncture just below her right breast. What was quite notable to Saeko straight away the distinct pink color of new skin which outlined approximately the extent of the damage. From the scaring, it indicated the size of the hole originally and it was almost as bad as that woman she wheeled into the operating room, no it was just as bad. It was only after realizing that this was a fatal wound that Saeko looked up at person that had prevented that. The young girl, her eyes closed and were deep in thought as she concentrated, imagining the wound and the complex human interior as it was and as it should be. The result was obvious, wherever the light from her glowing orb shined on, the body started to rebuild. Before her eyes, Saeko witnessed part of a body rebuild itself like she had seen surgeons do in countless operations.

Before she could say anything, Pluto grasped her on the shoulder and motioned her away.

"I know you want to aid her…" Pluto warned softly "but Saturn can handle things, she will be done soon"

The two of elder women stepped away from the on going surgery to talk,

"What happened to her?" Saeko asked at once

"Venus and Mercury were making their way into a room where we found someone badly wounded…" Pluto started to explain, feeling no point in lying about it "We got ambushed…last thing I remember was seeing an explosion of some sort and when we came to, Mercury was slumped on the floor bleeding and Venus was on the floor with burns over her body"

"What caused…"

Pluto merely motioned to her right, Saeko looked around at what she was indicating to and saw at the foot of the bed something. With a towel under it, was a long silver pillar-like rock, with one end clearly indicating it had gone through its victim. Saeko's imagination didn't need to ask the question. Pluto saw the expression on her face and explained

"She got hit by that" Pluto explained the obvious "We kept it in just to stop the bleeding"

The size of the stone pillar told her that no human would live with something this thick going through her body. Briefly, Saeko connected everything up in her mind, the detective had been telling the truth and despite that, her daughter had lived. Saeko thought about it, even seeing it now it was just beyond the pale of imagination. Then again, what part of tonight went according to reality? The nature of the terrorist attack – what else could they call it – on the police station. It felt like not one person was left unaffected inside that building. Her tip off by the detective that this had been the result of a senshi battle had added value to this being a wholly different sort of battle that appeared to have pushed the senshi their limits…was it really their limits?

It suddenly dawned on her that while many, including the police SWAT teams would consider this event a wholly unprecedented attack, the senshi might – regard for their different form of combat – think of this as typical. That she was wrong didn't stop her beliefs from firmly planting that conclusion into her head. She didn't have the time to angry, but it was sure present in her mind; how could this be considered normal? Pluto looked at her guest's face and guessed, correctly the nature of her expression. Instead of denying it which would've created a distraction for Saturn, she merely continued her assurances/

"Your daughter will be fine" Setsuna explained "for the moment we could use your assistance with our two other injured"

Saeko nodded and recognized her own reason why Pluto wanted to leave the room. It was to at least indulge or distract her mind for a minute while she focused on more manageable cases. But after seeing first hand her daughter's critical condition and the amazing reversal that Saturn had performed before her eyes; she had to ask herself what was going on. Such questions came at the most obvious of times, but around her she was the supposedly invincible sailor senshi, but instead of seeing relieved and confident young girls, she had seen faces not unlike those of patients and her staff. After retrieving the first aid kit she had carried in with her and walked out of the room, Pluto escorted Saeko back down to the living room where the other senshi were waiting.

"We have self healing capability…but I could do with your help with Jupiter's arm" Pluto went on as they walked down the hallway

Saeko walked into the living room, returning to encounter something just as unsettling as the wounded she had seen in the hospital for almost two hours. On one of the two couches, sailor Venus was laid down with Sailor Moon and Uranus keeping her body cooled down and cleaning up her bruises with the home medical kit, sitting on the other couch opposite; Jupiter had her arm wrapped in a makeshift sling that would keep her bones in place while her powered healing worked on re-fusing the bones. She appeared to be fighting off the pain rather well, but Saeko could tell that Jupiter was dying for a painkiller. Next to her Neptune was sitting down and looking the worst for wear, she had been relieved by Uranus and was now resting as best as she could on the other end of the couch. It took her a moment to realize it, but not a single one of them was in their civilian form.

"How come everyone is in their uniforms?" Saeko finally asked as she placed her bag down.

"We heal faster this way..." came Neptune's simple reply before succumbing to a sharp pain in her chest "...it just hurts like hell"

Saeko's flinching reaction was to go to the young woman's aid but her hand rose up and halted her progress. As Saeko was motioned by Neptune to the girl next to her, Pluto reopened the bag and continued to explain things.

"In our civilian forms, our senshi powers allow us to recover from all manner of aliments a lot faster then normal, but we need our senshi forms for the maximum effect" Pluto explained

"So this is normal?" Saeko was surprised "How often does this happen?"

"There was nothing normal about tonight!" Uranus spoke bitterly as she held Venus down for Sailor Moon "and if your thinking what happened to Mercury is typical, you're wrong!"

Pluto opened the bag full and retrieved the metal box and some bandages. Saeko had seen her first priority in Jupiter who looked to be in need to some help wrapping her bandage properly. She reached over to the open paramedic bag and retrieved the small metal box – that was the real reason why they had to sign out these kits – containing the painkiller medicines and sharps. After retrieving a needle kit from the dozen that this box had, Saeko then pulled out the bottle of morphine solution, stabbing it into the semi rubber cap, she estimated the weight of her subject and did the calculations for the amount she needed to extract. Her practice all night at this simple math had ensured her a quick job was done as she readied the needle.

In a moment of incongruity; Saeko realized that here she was, up close in person with a sailor Senshi and treating her as if was merely a continuation to her extended shift in the hospital. the only difference was that the absence of screaming, shouting, ambulance alarms and other ambient noises that occupied a hospital. Jupiter could see the effect on her face and didn't need to think long about why she had paused. On the inside she felt it was all surreal as well, she had after all wanted to see Ami's mother since the other day, and now here she was at least giving her some pain relief medication as well as some help adjusting the bandages. She also thought for a moment how funny it was, since when did a senshi need a doctor to heal her?

"Just pretend it's the other me if it makes things better" Jupiter offered, giving her a smile. It had the desired effect on Saeko as she nodded and she focused on the job.

"Is your senshi healing whatever going to stop working if I give you painkillers" Saeko asked like a professional

"I don't think so..." Jupiter said, not quite sure. She wasn't really fond of needles, but at the moment it was an attractive option to sitting in pain for hours.

Saeko nodded indifferently and injected into Jupiter's damaged arm an affordable dose of painkillers that took upwards of a minute to start taking effect. When Jupiter finally felt the effects, Saeko had already turned to put a lid on the needle and placed it in the expended supplies bag that came with the kit. Saeko went to work on just that and started asking questions as she went to work. Her injuries were less than pleasing to the eye but she at least wanted to do something about the pillow sheet bandage that was being used in place since they had used all the first aid kit on Mercury and Venus.

"So how did this happen anyway?" Saeko asked Jupiter, ignoring for the moment her patient's senshi status.

"We were chasing one the leaders to the roof…but she must've thrown a bomb or something at us…" Jupiter replied while she used her other hand to help untie the knot in her makeshift sling.

"That woman ambushed us" Neptune spoke as she observed

With Saeko's careful nature and with pluto's assistance, they start wrapping the bandage around properly, this time with the splint stick provided by the kit. In a few minutes Jupiter had a proper sling in place. Saeko told herself there was something quite unsettling about seeing a senshi in bandages and it furthered the question on just how often they found themselves injured All of them had said how unusual this was, but not unprecedented. That beckoned some concern, how often had they encountered unusual fights then?

"We almost had her" Jupiter said, "If we had seen what triggered that bomb, we might've avoided it"

"Is that what happened to her" Saeko motioned to Venus lain across the couch.

"Similar, but were at opposite ends of the building when she got hit" Jupiter said "we all got ambushed…"

Saeko stood up and took the two steps to kneel down again at this senshi's side. Sailor Moon had finished healing her and Venus's body was replete with pink scars that by morning would fade into the skin. Their powers were something to be amazed, but that they needed them at all was concerning to her.

"She'll wake up shortly" Sailor moon said as she stepped away from her unconscious counterpart and let Saeko look for herself the power of this healing magic. The front of Venus's uniform was almost gone, her Blue front ribbon was burnt and her rubbery plastic of her uniform had been torn away in pieces exposing her stomach and parts of her chest. To Saeko, it was a real strong contrast to the Sailor Venus she saw standing over her in that elevator. Here, even while her body was healing now on its own, Venus looked almost vulnerable in her unconscious state. It was almost as bad as the expression Mercury – except for the obvious absence of a permeating wound in her chest – had when she was being worked on in the other room. It was a starling moment of comprehension for the situation that begged the question, had they not pulled these two girls away from the battle zone, what would've happened?

In this house, all nine senshi who fought at the police station were present. Of the nine; two had been – In her terms – critically wounded, and four or five of them had suffered minor wounds. Mars, Moon and Saturn appeared so far for the moment the only three with no bandaging or signs of injury. But despite the severity of their injuries, they were all sitting around and resting, healing battle wounds like a bad back, and as for the critically injured? Here she saw the pink skin as the only thing remaining of Venus's wounds. As she appeared healthy again and with the exception of cuts on her face and arms, would recover fully as though nothing had happened.

It was called information overload by those in the business of fixing the mind without tools, and right now Saeko was getting an overdose of it. What Saeko had witnessed so far was twisting the very fabric of understanding. She was a doctor and everything she had been told or seen had defied all the practical laws of her profession, and the crazy thing? Nobody here seemed to be concerned one bit, at least not frantically so, it was as if it was routine for them. The brief moment of analysis brought up a new question; this senshi business, just what was typical by their standards? If near death was considered unusual by the other senshi, just what defined normal?

"Doctor Mizuno" Pluto spoke as she noticed the glow in the bedroom down the hall dim "I believe your daughter has been healed"

The once critically – possibly mortally wounded – Mercury was now merely unconscious, and absent of her wound with a similar pink scar covering where her body had been impaled. On the other side of the bed, Mars continued to kneel beside the bed and was holding the now sleeping Saturn. On the young senshi's face; it showed how spent her body was in working on saving Mercury's life. Mars having faithfully carried out the task of assisting the 'doctor' was now watching over their patient whom was now free of harm and would come around soon enough. Upon hearing the door open, Mars both turned up to see who it was. Pluto and the bewildered Saeko walked into the room and stood on the opposite side from mars and looked down at Saturn's handiwork.

Saeko couldn't believe her eyes. No, she couldn't believe her ears, or any of the senses, even the ones only women had. In the space of 15 minutes; her daughter had gone from a state of coma – from a certainly fatal wound – to merely unconscious, a process that in any good hospital would take at least four to six days. She looked the worse for wear, but nothing in her wildest imagination could say how she felt to see her daughter alive, thanks in part to bewitched magic that defied her many years of experience in medicine. Aside, Pluto noted Saturn's state of affairs and sighed concern that she had been forced to strain herself again; always a hard worker, Saturn was she kept pushing herself despite her age.

"Mars, can you please take Saturn to my room, she has done enough for today" Pluto instructed

Sailor Mars did so without a word and stood up with the pre-teen senshi in her arms. It would be impossible to change Saturn back into Hotaru with her asleep and so the two left the room, leaving Pluto, Mercury and Mercury's mother with some privacy for what they were about to discuss.

"But what she did…" Saeko spoke motioning to Saturn "Is she alright?"

"Whenever she does something this complex; it drains her physically and mentally…her body can't handle the stress yet…" Pluto elaborated carefully "It is amazing however what she can do it…it's why she is known as the senshi of death and rebirth"

Those words didn't entail her much comfort; but it was none the less true, with the touch of her powers, and given her willingness, it seemed that young girl had the godlike power to bring someone back from near death and have her fully recover, or so she had seen. Saeko looked down to her daughter again that she had almost neglected for a second and saw that her expression hadn't changed, but the strength in her closed eyes had returned. She had truly come back from near death and it was just starting to hone in on Saeko that it was thanks to a shy little girl who had looked far too young to be a senshi.

Pluto took her a glass to refill it with some ice cold water to drink. It was just the thing Mercury would need when she woke up. In the meantime, Saeko carefully inspected the wound, probing the skin and finding it while soft to the touch, but still very resistant. It was almost as if nothing had happened. Ever worried about the normal effects a wound this deep would be on the interior, Saeko took her daughter's pulse; it was a little slow, but this assumingly was because of the low blood pressure.

"She was very lucky tonight, but considering what she and everyone have done…" Pluto replied honestly "you could say it was only unusual that she got hit"

That surprised Saeko, what an odd thing to say to her. It came to her as something of a mistake in speech, but it hadn't been had it? In more ways than one and it brought back the question she had just asked herself. Just how many times had Mercury come this close to death for her to say that it was normal? Faced with the price of such callous reality as near death, in one very clear minute of deep thought compressed into a bare fraction of the time; it had dawned on Saeko to think about the circumstances her daughter faced as a senshi. What she found in herself were things that truly shocked and terrified her. It was far more than just a fancy real life incarnation of an urban legend and subject of toy commercials and cartoons. But for all for all the exciting things she thought of that being a senshi offered, and it had suddenly occurred on Saeko that like all things that portrayed itself as something to be envied; it had a hidden double edge.

Every time she went to fight, it was a for real battle; and in battles, there was real danger that you could be hurt. Being unlucky or careless could cost you more than just a bump on the head; its results were plain obvious in front of her. Had Mercury not been saved by her own kind with their own magic; might she be weeping over a corpse instead of looking into her daughter's quite body? Having thought festered, she had to ask herself a new question, what forced Ami to take this risk? Better yet, what motivated all nine girls – whom had yet to marry or even graduate school in some cases – to simply forgo fate and prepare to face death without fear? When the answer didn't offer itself, Saeko looked down at her daughter and wondered if she had been awake, would she have provided an unequivocal answer. But she didn't offer an answer asleep and even if she was awake she probably wouldn't know what her mother was thinking of. Despite not knowing herself what she was thinking, Saeko wondered on her own now if her daughter even knew how close she came to dying.

'Of course…Probably…maybe…not really….' thought Saeko, for her it was took much to bear thinking of. All of a sudden her thoughts had changed from heartfelt relief to one edging towards bitter resentment. Since she walked in the door, in the back of her mind a simple question had formed, one word, not much more that as the context surrounding it had yet to form. But it carried a simple meaning; it was a universally understood query that was recognized all who spoke human languages as one of the six questions that they asked each other. To Pluto, her ever cautious eyes saw her guest's expression change from comfort knowing her daughter was alive to one to something quite less understanding.

"There appears to be a lot of conflict in your mind about what to make of this" Pluto started before simply adding finally "I don't blame you"

She turned to Pluto for a moment when she heard what said and quietly clearly regretted that she had placed herself in an awkward place to answer such an insensitive question. Finally Saeko turned back to face Pluto and in one simple word of conviction; ask her one question she had been repeating to herself all night.

"Why?" Saeko said in a bitter tone

Pluto looked surprised – she really hadn't been – at the question. It had to happen sooner or later; no human mind could pent up anger at the unexplained and keep it hidden for very long. Saeko Mizuno was use to hiding her anger in all manner of situations at her profession, and along with the pressures with society to comprehend to a very strict regime of conduct when in public, it was becoming too much for that discipline to hold back.

"Why…what?"

Saeko looked furiously at Pluto, forgetting she was a sailor senshi for just a moment and seeing her as Setsuna Meioh

"Why did you let her get injured? And why does she need to put her life on the line?" it came out in one rapid burst before she got control of herself.

Pluto didn't react to the insult; doing so would've given her guest's irrationality the necessary reason to ignore her more controlled thoughts. Even after quietly clearly explaining to her the circumstances of their ambush as it was, she was still the one that Saeko looked to as responsible for the near death of her daughter. Denying that it was her fault would only cause criticism from irrational hatred and the eldest senshi didn't want to lower herself or the clinical doctor into a blame game. In the end, the explanation best suited was also the most truthful.

"Because it's our job" Pluto spoke evenly "We are…it's ours to protect those who can't be defended"

"What job needs my daughter to be ready to die!" Saeko said, her anger now fully blossomed and now hurting her emotionally.

That was difficult to answer. But Pluto couldn't really lie; mortality was not a two way street, and how did one begin to explain death to someone who had rather an expert scientific conclusion to place with the word. To pluto's way of thinking, it was like asking why the sky was blue or why fish swam in water. To Saeko however, the fear that her daughter might be dead now had it not been for magic and certain will had cultivated an anger that human emotion created for itself when unable to explain why things were. In this case, Saeko had real reason to be angry; death was a subject with many unknowns as far as she was concerned, it was incurable, it was final. But right before her eyes, Saturn had practically brought Mercury back from the near dead in a matter of an hour.

So how was she suppose to feel about it; relief was the obvious choice, but to a person who knew better and was as smart as Saeko Mizuno, she also had to have some doubts, which under the right circumstances could translate into guilt or anger. You didn't simply accept and – human nature almost forbad it – move on, like all humans, you had to ask either how or why. How was seemingly more logical; to learn be able to avoid or repeat it, but why was deeper meaning of knowing the reason why it was so. Based on this, Pluto was not really surprised that 'Why' had been the side that Saeko had thought on, she was a clinical doctor, she did not need to know how to avoid or repeat, she wanted to know why, to learn and decide how to treat a case.

Pluto decided that one day she would have to talk to Saeko about this, but right now when she was in a state of fatigued shock would not be appropriate – and she doubted that she would get anywhere anyway – just after her daughter had recovered. For the meantime, Saeko needed to let things sink in and for the questions relating to why, she could easily ask anyone; including her daughter.

"Doctor Mizuno" Pluto addressed her formally "This is a subject for another time and when we have all slept properly…when I have time, you and I can discuss the virtues that the senshi risk their blood and body for…" Pluto's voice strengthened "for the meantime and I mean no disrespect…but this talk should be one you should have with your daughter…don't direct your words to me without hearing what she has to say first"

With that, Pluto resigned from kneeling by the bed and left the room. She hadn't meant to insult or accuse her of anything, but Pluto felt that Saeko was ignoring the one person she was suppose to speak to on this matter regardless her state of consciousness. Upon her return to the living room, the now awake Venus and the other senshi waited for Pluto's pronouncement. Her words softly remained in control, her disappointment exercised into her instruction to Uranus to transform back into civilian attire and to try the Mizuno's to their residence. All of them understood, but at the same time, all of them feared for Mercury; her circumstances of less than six hours before had just turned into something quite else.

* * *

When Mercury eventually awoke, they were driven home; better they all thought for the two of them to have their pending talk alone. For the sake of keeping an eye on Haruka; Michiru had tagged along, and braving the pain her cracked ribs gave her to make sure that her partner didn't say anything or do anything to further engage the situation. She didn't, and when they dropped off the Mizuno's, both could feel the pressure in the air evaporate as the problem walked into the apartment building.

"She isn't going to get a single wink of sleep because of this" Michiru spoke as she looked up at the sky. Clouds were forming and the reflection of the city lights illuminated them against the pure black sky"

"Which one?" Haruka said in her one spoken thought as she concentrated on the road, her headache was back again.

* * *

"How could you be so reckless?"

"I wasn't being reckless, it was an accident"

"But you almost died" Saeko complained "How could you not tell me something like this was possible?"

"I tried…" Ami said "but when was I going to tell you?"

They were standing in their living room now, Ami was in much greater pain outside her senshi form and hadn't been given painkillers to compensate. She wanted to transform back into her senshi form, but at the moment, her mother had felt something more pressing had to be talked about. She knew from her deepest fears and from the confirming nod from Pluto that it would not be a pleasant discussion right now.

"You've could've tried…" Saeko continued "Ami you're smarter than is…didn't you realize that your could've been killed?"

"I'm well aware of the risks involved…" Ami replied, with just a tone of resentment creeping in "I have been a sailor senshi for awhile now"

She wanted to express how dangerous her job from the first time they talked about it, but simply put, her mother hadn't thought of asking. In hindsight it was really hers and her mother's fault, instead of asking about the interesting things, like the names of the other senshi and associated trivia, Ami felt that should've been the time she should have told her about the risks. But it was too late now and debunking the myths associated with her unique persona however had instantly been overshadowed by the much larger issue of the very nature of the senshi.

Had someone observed the discussion, they would have felt somewhat at odds with both of them coming to conclusions before words had been spoken; but it had been such the case. For Saeko; she was concluding that Ami had not known the risks and was now questioning her ability to judge dangers. At same time for Ami; it was concluding that her mother was ignoring her well versed and accepted understanding of the situation and the measures that she had placed to prevent accidents.

"That doesn't… that shouldn't…you're still in high school Ami!" Saeko replied gasping

"Mom…I've been a sailor senshi since middle school…" Ami pleaded "and we train almost every month for situations like this…it's been awhile I'll admit…but we all knew the risks when we came into this"

Saeko thought about that, and it was true; she had known and Ami's secret for maybe three days at most now, and still they had all of thirty minutes of discussion on the topic, but was that really an excuse? Rationally told her yes, irrationally told her it was a lie…but Saeko wasn't one to follow her emotions forever and the car ride home had helped her cool down somewhat as her mind started composing thoughts about what to say. At the same time, she had wisely reconsidered her position on what Pluto had said before departing the room; she was right, before talking again – and they would – her and Ami would have a long talk about this, starting now.

"Then tell me…why is being with them so important that your willing to die for it" Saeko asked hurtfully

It was an interesting reflection, three hours ago, Ami had been knocked out like a light and not even aware that she was close to death. Averting that, now here she was trying to justify a sacrifice that she had just narrowly avoided. Had Saeko thought of it, she would've probably avoid saying such words so harshly, but at present, there was no real emotion that could describe her enraged fury and what rationally she had reinforced on their return home had melted away in her initial talk with her daughter. On the other side of the table, the words couldn't have hurt more that they did; in a instant, Ami felt that while she may have avoided death, she was coming close to a different kind of human tragedy, that until this morning, she had hoped had been be negated.

"Because it's my duty, mom" Ami said, tearing up

"Duty?" Saeko repeated

"Honor, courage, working for your fellow team members…you should know that word by now…" Ami replied furiously, her anger taking over from her grief "…you use that word every time you have to stay at work another hour!"

It was a word that stung Saeko especially hard because it was one excuse she had sugar laced so much over the years for many reasons – and consequently the reason why there was now so much distance between the two of them – but she had reason to expect her to use that same excuse. How was it duty if you had to run into buildings under siege and risk getting internal organs impaled?

"I don't risk my life working late at the hospital" Saeko shot back "and you should know better its not my choice…I cant leave patients unattended"

"It's not my choice either!" Ami continued her attack regardless "I can't leave the others with the burden, and who is going to save lives if we don't do what we have to do?"

The attempt at passing off the word as an exaggeration infuriated her even more. Ami could see it now that she wasn't listening to reason, but how could she just stand here and take it from her that it wasn't duty? Saeko was caught off guard by the implicit comparison in their respective duties and was in an instant wordless. Regardless of her mother's current state of mind, Ami continued on.

"You did it because you were told to as well, weren't you? That's your idea of duty wasn't it? How is me going to save lives any different how you save lives?" Ami charged on, now she was very much out of control of herself.

"But you're putting unnecessary risk on yourselves…" Saeko tried to regain control, but she had lost the upper hand

"You think I like it? You think I enjoy being hurt like this?" Ami spoke with anguish as she motioned to the location her scar was under her civilian clothes "We may have our faults… but if you won't fault police officers for defending the citizens or doctors who give their own blood to save patients… why are you faulting me for?"

This argument had turned out far more differently than both had hoped. While openly defending each other from a supposed wrathful nature of their opposite; inside, they both wished to stop fighting. Ami; for wanting to not going where she had managed to avoid going three or so days ago after the incident at the shopping center, and Saeko; more for quite simply not wanting to have this argument be the lasting impression on her daughter that might make things harder to talk out. The realization of what she had done wrong was piercing as it was painful, probably even more than Ami's wound was when it hit her, Saeko thought. Despite her fear for her safety all night; why was she now, in their own home, toe to toe about to scream at each other? Shouldn't she be happy she was alive, what happened to those feelings?

Was it because of t

* * *

he heavy-handed nature of the attack she only heard of, was it the graphic detail that that detective went into describing her daughter's wound? Was it the feelings amongst the other senshi whom themselves were badly injured? Was it undeniable power of Sailor Saturn and Sailor moon's healing power and how the other senshi had become complacent – or appeared in her mind to be – at serious injury? Or was it the stern and cryptic words of Pluto who steered her away from blowing up at her and making her confront Ami right now? It was all those things, but what contributed to her failure to judge things was she simply hadn't stopped to think. Since the start of the crisis at the emergency room until now, she had operated non stop, moving from one place to another with a mind like a machine. Her mind made up as it choice the quickest answer or one that made the most sense first. It was fatigue, it was midnight now and she had been up and active a long time today.

It all added together, with the final instrument being her factual ignorance of her daughter's world; all of it equaled an equation of self destruction and blame on others that resulted in tears and unnecessary tension from an already troublesome dilemma. Saeko felt all her energy leave her at that point, all night it held her high, from midday to dusk, to the crowded hallways of the emergency ward and to the helipad on her hospital, to the outer senshi's house and back again. All this time she had it in her, and now, facing her daughter in a stand off one on one; she had lost every ounce of it.

"I'm…sorry" Saeko replied, trying to emphasis "I really am…"

Ami lurched backwards, part pain driven, part sleep deprived, both making her ability to stand and think harder. The moment of tension had been released, but now it had been pulled again because one didn't simply forgive and forget when shouted at.

"Can we please talk about this in the morning…" Ami also submitted, turning to retreat for her room "…I need to rest"

Ami, hobbled – she really wish she had painkillers right now – away to her room and slammed the door shut, leaving her mother to herself in the living room with an empty room full of unresolved tension. Ami crashed down on her bed and with her face into her pillow burst into tears as her worst possible fear had come true. Standing off against her, her mother had thoroughly rejected her senshi status against her previous word that she had no such feelings. Even if she had said sorry now, it was too late to hide her real feelings of distrust.

Right now her mother was scarier than she had previously appreciated, even when she had to stand up in the lift and shout her unsealing incantation and the aftermath that followed; now what she was thinking of her truly terrified her. Her last conscious thought before drifting off to sleep had been how her joyous comfort of acceptance turned into such a scary route towards rejection.

* * *

_Author's commentary: This chapter was fairly difficult to work out and was actually rewritten completely after the original version went too long and played an alternative version of the scene where Saturn could barely control Mercury's shock trauma. In the end, it felt too heavy handed and made the senshi look too incompetent, which was not the idea. _

_The final Scene was also a part with some troubles, writing a domestic disturbance scene that doesn't become too dramatic is fairly difficult and it took me awhile to work out a reasonable argument for Ami and Saeko to talk about. In the end, it does feel just a little too dramatic, but i got the message of concern i wanted Saeko to talk about out there._


	11. Chapter 10: Misunderstandings

**Chapter 10: Misunderstandings**

"…the horrific attack started at around seven thirty last night as witnesses reported a loud explosion from the basement of the building. The siege lasted almost three hours as police became trapped inside offices during the shoot out that has claimed…"

"…12 dead and at least 30 severely wounded marks one of the gravest acts of terrorism in recent memory in this country… the Minato distinct police station last night became a deadly urban battle zone, as an unknown band of terrorists stormed the building. Reports of police officers fighting a ruthless enemy have emerged as survivors told stories of…"

"…Denying that anything was stolen, but will continue to investigate as forensic and crime scene investigators continue to search the building this morning…"

"….became a triage as overflow forced patients to be flown across the bay to Kiba university hospital. Chief surgeon of Tokyo general hospital reported that the small hospital had done 'as best as they could' with the small staff on hand…"

"…government officials in Japan are now calling a full investigation from both the Tokyo metropolitan police service and an independent investigation to be conducted by their Public Security Intelligence Agency…

"…Witness reports have cited seeing popular civilian militia group the sailor senshi at the scene of the siege and have reported their actions had brought a quick conclusion to the siege…officials however have…"

"…Currently investigating if they were the cause…or if the terrorists were trying to steal important evidence pertaining to the Juban super center attack in which the popular militia group was also involved…From outside the Minato police station… this is Tomoyo Miyazaki for NHK morning news"

* * *

Standing a fair distance from Tomoyo and behind a crowd of passers by, Minako and Usagi stood and looked up at the place had been fighting in just over half a day ago. Their quick departure to seek treatment for Mercury had belayed any attempt in assisting in quelling the fire; as a result, the fire started by that last fireball explosion on the roof had gutted the top of the building and spread down one side of the building. Additional fires from other explosions were easily marked against the silver and grey walls of the building. In all; it was amazing the building was still standing. The two of them were heading home after staying the night at Setsuna's house. For measure they were sure, both of them would have some explaining to do when they got back, but for the moment, their attention was focused on the police station.

"What a mess" Artemis spoke from Minako's shoulder "It's going to take them ages to repair the damage"

"Any clues?" Usagi asked

"Nothing" Luna reported from her respective owner's shoulder "we searched all night, nothing around the area, and even if we could…the place was swarming with police and rescue personal, we wouldn't have been able to get close without ending up in the pound"

"So we're back at square zero…" Minako concluded

'It's square one…' Artemis corrected

Their discussion was simply put; a briefing on how they had failed. It had taken long enough to realize it, but no matter how they could look at it, last night – despite its successful execution of the primary objective – had been an utter whitewash failure for the senshi. In two decisive ambushes, the entire force had been wiped out of action and had their enemy chose to finish them off, it was possible that one or two of them might not be alive this morning. It wasn't good news, whoever had been fighting had been prepared for the senshi this time, the larger numbers and cunning ambush tactics had thrown everyone into a state of shock and the leaders – whoever they were – had been very good at evading the senshi.

Now that the dust had settled, it was time to pick up the pieces and work out what went so wrong. For Luna and Artemis, it had involved a chilly night on the streets and rooftops looking for vital clues to the origin of the enemy. Nether the less, like the news media and on site investigators now coming the site, neither had found much in the way of clues.

"Lets go" Usagi replied

The two girls and their cats left the station and started to walk down the street.

"So any suspects on your mind?" Minako asked Luna

"Nobody comes to mind sad to say" Luna explained "assault raid on a police station? Not even Shadow Galactica was that overt"

Artemis thought about that for a moment and asked a question "You say that the enemy was identical in shape and size?"

"Pretty much, more of the small ones and more of the big ones…" Minako reported before adding "And there were a lot more than we saw at the super center"

Artemis paused for a moment and thought about it, since the battle with Shadow Galactica; his long term and past-mortality memory was foggy at best, but something about what Minako had said before had just struck a tone with him. Overt attacks, identical robots, and violent battle tactics, three things you didn't really associate with any of their previous enemies.

"So…Whoever it is has to know about senshi right? How else do you explain those robots?" Artemis debated "Come one Luna…mass produced combat robots…who does that remind you of?"

"I honestly can't think of anyone" Luna said without thinking it through.

Her memories post Shadow Galactica had been whitewashed – dying had that effect – and was even worse that Artemis's. She had retained memory of her past life as advisor to sailor moon, but her even more distant memory of the Silver Millennium had still been locked up tight. It didn't help her analysis of the situation very well. Someone that knew who would be defending this city was making bold moves…but towards what? Both places had been very public attacks with very little restraint on collateral damage. If the battle at the Juban super center had made things hard to figure out, last night's siege at the Minato police station just added another layer to the puzzle that had yet to be solved. One thing for certain, didn't need a lot of thought, whoever it was had the resources, the will and the strength to fight anywhere for any reason, and that unpredictable nature made them dangerous.

"Any word from Mamoru?" Minako asked Usagi.

"I left a message on his machine after the attack happened" Usagi replied "But with the time zones...it might be awhile before he replies, if he can at all"

"Then it might be time to restart patrols" Luna spoke seriously.

"Isn't it a bit too soon to be thinking of that?" Minako said

What Luna referred to was how the senshi had operated in the aftermath of the Shadow Galactica affair. Their threat of attacks had forced senshi to change their operating method to an ad-hoc patrol in calculated hot spots to be ready to instantly respond to any occurrences where they were needed. The plan originally drafted by the cats had been sufficient to react to any crisis with two sailor senshi on patrol with two more on ten minutes notice. It results however had been fruitless searches at all hours of the day and had been murder on lives and consequently burnt all the senshi out, consequent to its eventual scaling back and termination.

"Not in the slightest" Luna replied "if they can do this much damage on a whim, then I think we need to consider it"

Neither girl liked the idea, but in the abstract, they were both now more mature than they had been when they had been fighting before. There would be complaints, but none would be able to weigh in on the scale their enemy was willing to go to achieve their yet to be determined objective.

"Now what's the story with Ami and her mother?" Artemis asked

* * *

Ami could've sworn she had woken up earlier, but hadn't quite clicked inside to wake up fully when she did. As a result, the she had awoken far later than she had expected, far later in fact than she could recall in recent memory. Whatever time it was, it was late enough that the light had stopped shining through her window, a sign that it was past eleven in the morning. Logic told her that her wound – it still hurt more than it was comfortable – and exhaustion were the reasons, along with loss of blood and other human factors that came from saving human lives. Therefore in the time it took her to get her mind functioning again; it took Ami fully three minutes for her mind to rewind back to what happened last night before she had gone to bed. When her mind finally remembered, she simply froze.

It came back to her, standing in the living room being told she was reckless, irresponsible and that she was risking her for the wrong reasons and the subsequent fight that erupted. It had been quite a reversal from the acceptance that came from her initial fears and that now seemed like a distant memory. She started to reflect; Ami knew that it was her own fault for not explaining that it was part of her job description to be in the line of fire sometimes. But Ami remembered she'd had been so happy to pass the initial hurdle that it never occurred to think of what would happen after that. Like all things discovered or disclosed, there was a time where its nature had been misunderstood and a period where the subject became taboo or hard to discuss. Right now, this was their time, and like it or now, Ami was faced with an impossible problem.

How could she to explain all this. What she said last night in a moment of irrationality had made her actions now seem even more irresponsible in Ami's mind. To her way of thinking; she now feared that her mother was under the impression that the sailor senshi were reckless and irresponsible being with very little apathy for their own well being. It just wasn't true Ami knew, but how else did one explain it to one who had the image of a bloodied up senshi in her head? From what she could tell in the brief time she was awake at Setsuna's house, her mother had arrived while she was still unconscious and had been around long enough to treat Jupiter and talk to Pluto about what happened.

It would've been worthwhile if someone had found out how her mother even knew she was badly injured, but apparently nobody had seemed to work that one out. Regardless, she had found out, probably from a patient and now her mother was quite aware of one aspect of the senshi that the public didn't know about; their invincibility was only a facade and they bled just like normal humans if they weren't careful, they could die. After getting out of bed, Ami walked to her door; the first task on her late morning would be to shower; injured or not, the hot water would be refreshing and wake her up more than a meal or coffee could at her age.

As she stripped down for the shower and started, stepping inside gave her the momentary awe that hot water on her back did as it started both cleaning the skin of dirt and healing her of aches and pains under her skin. After a long exhale; Ami thought about what to do with her problem. First priority would be to try talking her back from seeing the senshi as reckless; years of training and experience had gotten them out of bigger problems than last night – Hadn't they? – And she and the other senshi had been very careful the whole night. After that; who knew? Ami knew, or at least suspected that her mother would no longer have faith in her abilities as a senshi.

And why not? Had her mother not told her of the virtues that Sailor Mercury had, didn't they apply anymore? More then likel; her mother hadn't considered that with every fiction, there were at least two truths to them.

'What had she said to me?' Ami thought as she leaned her head against the wall and starred at the tile floor 'she said I was a careful thinker, smarter then the rest, elegant, and always helped the other senshi'

Well she had certainly been a careful thinker the whole night; right until she fell into a trap and got a three foot stone pillar through her right lung. 'Smarter than the rest; only when she had the numbers to back her up and even then, it was sometimes dumb luck. Elegant, only when she had the upper edge and the whole of last night she hadn't. Finally, what help had she been? Planning that assault on all those robots was her best moment, but it was really Pluto and Saturn who deserved marks, their brave no-holds-barred approach, running into the enemy with full energy. Objectively, she was being uncharacteristically negative to herself, but the results spoke volumes to debate that such criticisms of her conduct last night were justified

When she felt she had been in long enough; Ami turned the handles to cease the humid warm rain and stepped out of the tile lined cube. In a minute she was dried and with her towel, simply walked back into her room. She opened her wardrobe doors and proceeded to change into fresh clothes. Everything was just as so, as she did the hook on her bra in the mirror, she took a moment to inspect the remaining visible marks of her supposedly fatal wound. It was now just a faint pink outline and by afternoon it would be as if she never had it. The stiffness in her chest would carry over for another day she knew from experience; but it would be like nothing ever happened. Now if she could just get her mother to think like that, she would be in a much healthier mindset.

When Ami finished up, she walked out her room, expecting nothing. In the whole time she had been getting ready for another day; she had found no evidence to suggest anyone else was home. This confirmed it, no television turned on, no activity in the kitchen or the smell of food; just silence. Ami walked around the kitchen bench and along the way she read the whiteboard to confirm her suspicions.

'Got called in to work early today, I'm sorry we didn't get to talk last night but I want to talk to you about this, I promise I'll be here to talk to you tonight' Ami read it before asking herself her one thoughtless question of the day "Well if you wanted to talk to me, why aren't you here now?"

Ami sighed and walked to the fridge; they had little in the way of breakfast food, a hindsight from her earlier shopping, but there was always cereal. After retrieving the milk and searching the cupboard for the box that she and mom shared from, she poured some in an empty bowl and in a minute sat down to eat. Her day so far had not been a promising one, one for the pain in her chest and two for her problems with her mother, the third she was sure she could get on the news. For the first time; Ami reflected on the battle itself, it had been a disaster. Whoever they were fighting didn't have much respect for human life and doubly so for the senshi. The lower floors had been a real mess, a sign of a truly bloodthirsty chaotic warmonger. Higher up however, she had encountered very little injury, a sign of a conservative combatant who didn't seek to kill as savagely as was needed.

So there had been two leaders maybe, but they had been both very good, delaying methods, cunning ambushes – she'd heard part of what happened to the other team – they were dealing with real professionals this time. They were people who learnt very quickly the senshi's weaknesses and how to work around them. She would have to discuss with the others about this later; after she had dealt with her mother first. Ami finished her impromptu meal and started to walk to the sink when the telephone rang. Normally she had an urge to pick it up, but Ami decided to let the answering machine get it. After five monotone rings, the answering machine picked it up.

"Hey Ami, I guess you're not up yet…listen, the director wants to call us in for a meeting about last night later today, I'm going to have to come home a little later, one hour, I promise...it'll be one hour…and we can talk about your…I mean our problem…I'll see you soon"

The answering machine beeped and the little red light started its blinking. Standing in the kitchen, Ami's esteem dropped back to the floor and her anger from last night found new fire. Had she being thinking in other terms and objectively, Ami would've put it down to mean a 'problem in understanding' or a genuine mistake in wording or something else. But the words in her mind from last night had not abated since she remembered them and fuelled her irrational bias towards her mother's opinion, and subsequently her message. Now she was calling her senshi persona a 'problem'. It was too much; it was bad enough that she had called it reckless and irresponsible, now she was tagging it as a problem; a term associated with talks she had given Ami about under aged sex and drinking. It was like a sudden change in respect had occurred without her notice; now it felt like Ami was being talked down to like a child for being out late at night.

"…and even if you promise an hour, it'll be midnight before you even come home" Ami said to the phone.

Ami left the kitchen and turned for her room again, she needed somewhere to think. Inside her room she landed on her bed and looked up, but she couldn't get it out of her head; talk about her problem? Ami knew what the problem was, that her mother wasn't going to listen to her side of the story – probably – and would probably try to find a way to devaluate her argument about duty. After resting on her bed for a few minutes, she felt it wasn't enough…she briefly considered the living room before she decided to think outside the box. She needed to get out; not just out for a walk, not down to the park, she just needed to get away from this place, not just to get some fresh air, but she needed some space. Ami rolled out of bed and grabbed her bag as she walked out of her room.

She needed to think, and she needed someone to talk to since her mother probably wasn't going to listen – If she was going to be home at all – so did it really matter if she was here at all? As she decided on a location, Ami wrote on the whiteboard in her best penmanship and left it no return time. In another minute she was out the door.

* * *

Her task had started with drawing up a plan to how she would evaluate the data and how she would accomplish the task she and her dead sensei had envisioned this load of information would obtain. The task was a daunting one, not only because she had to do it alone, but she had to be extra diligent in finding what her teacher had given his life to finding out himself.

First, she organized the tapes by their name; Vita recognized straight away that every one had been properly labeled what the original copy had been, and then with a map that one could easily obtain from an information booth at any shopping center, she started looking for tapes that corresponded with the numbers of stores. For the most part, they were ones that had nothing on them, and she placed them to the side for the moment. When she had sorted the ones Vita could identify where they had been placed, she had still a box and a half of tapes from the hallways in that massive building. Vita didn't how they sequenced and would have to work this out as she went.

When she had accomplished that, she took the first three tapes and placed them in the center of a ring she had drawn up. Despite their obvious form, data media was the same to her form of magic, where they are orbs, or these boxy plastic microfilm containers. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the first set of cassettes. Above them, a ball of glowing green aura formed and became semi-solid and then beams of light shot down at the tapes and her task began.

At once, she saw three, distinct and three very different viewing angles, one looked oddly familiar. But was not quite close enough to the action; it promised to be a long day for her.

* * *

Half way across the district and in her third floor office, Saeko pondered over her salad and continued to ask herself how she could've potentially handled yesterday better. This morning had been a really annoying affair; she had been reprimanded for a number of offenses, including taking a paramedic bag for personal reasons – something that drew especial attention from the rest of the staff – Saeko had been assigned to do some rounds and not much else. Now three hours later; Saeko had found herself on duty with surprisingly little work. It was a waste of time she admitted; here she was having a late lunch at her desk when she could've been at home trying to talk to her daughter. Well, the world wasn't always fair, nor did it seem to follow any sort of profound logic that indicated that she was allowed to take time off to resolve problems.

But she couldn't complain, especially not after having some desk clerk quote the law to her pertaining to the use of controlled substances – not that he really understood a thing about them – on authorized patients. It was just depressing to the clinical doctor that so much of her time was being wasted on doing nothing but being here, obeying her duty to the hospital as one of its healers, clocking in when needed and as this morning had shown, occasionally be talked down by a man whom was ten years her junior. She reflected again as she had done all morning on the events of last night, not of the actual time spent here, but after that, when she had in the words of the desk admin 'effectively abandoned her post and stole valuable supplies' to see her daughter.

In hindsight, there was really no other way she could've done yesterday better; it had been her inexperience at the situation that caught her by surprise, not the thoughts that fueled her mind, though they certainly didn't help paint a rosy picture of the senshi for her that she now regretted thinking. Now that she had sleep and time apart to think of the details, a lot of things came across more clearly than her tired, fatigued mind had assumed. From the moment she had walked into the door at their place however, it seemed set that every false perception that she had about the senshi had been debunked.

The first and foremost in her mind had been subject of a sleepless few hours last night for the middle aged doctor. Despite knowing for a fact that all humans were prone to injury; it somehow ever came across to her that the senshi were just as vulnerable and could be hurt. The difference she had learned was that their powers had anticipated that by giving them all special abilities to at least compensate with still being impaired with minor injuries. What should have impressed her, rather than scare – and later enrage – her; was for the much more difficult problems, at least one of them had a select skill that defied human medical understanding and of the impossible. It seemed practical, but for them to need such skills undermined the very invincible nature of the senshi.

'So…' she asked herself quietly 'does it mean they know the danger they are walking into?'

And that had been what enraged her before, but with the benefit of hindsight, Saeko admitted that her mind had given a false understanding of the situation. As Uranus and the others repeated, what they encountered was not typical of their usual business, a business of which she had the least knowledge of, after all it was Saeko who hadn't taken an applied course in sailor senshi. Later on, Ami further reminded her that by driving home the very point she had actually admired before realizing the danger involved, that she had been doing it for quite some time, and they subsequently use to the risks by now. But that still didn't quite make Saeko feel as accepting of the facts as her daughter had hoped.

Her thought process was promptly interrupted when someone knocked on her office door. She looked up and saw, much to her relief a friendly face.

"Still eating?" Hiroyoshi asked "or are you going to experiment with that piece of lettuce?"

"Come in" Saeko rose to meet her guest "when did you arrive?"

"Just now, I haven't even had breakfast yet…" Hiroyoshi answered before going on "they want to talk to be about how I handled last night"

"But you did everything right" Saeko protested

"Yeah, I suspect that the administration people upstairs have a couple of questions about how we managed to get those four cases wrong…plus I imagine they'll want to know why I let you go"

"What are you going to tell them?" Saeko asked worried

"That you were fatigued…that you were too exhausted to continue" Hiroyoshi answered "guidelines say that I couldn't have you on if you weren't alert enough…that sort of excuse"

Saeko saw the implicit message between the lines that he had forgiven her absence and understood why she had to go out, even if they didn't see it quite that way.

"Thank you" Saeko responded.

"You're welcome" Hiroyoshi went on "Don't know how I'm going to explain the missing paramedic bag, but I'm sure something will come to mind…"

He produced his lunch and unwrapped the paper packaging to reveal hospital cafeteria low grade sandwiches. If there was one disadvantage staff had over patients is that the patients had to only endure the low grade food for as long as they were interned here, the staff had to sometimes live on tasteless, poorly prepared and bland meals to work through the day. Saeko had long since bought her lunch on the way to the hospital just prior to her arrival to work.

"I don't know what I was thinking…" Saeko replied

"Yes you did" Hiroyoshi replied candidly "you thought like any concerned parent would and prepared for the worst case scenario…in your case, your status here allows you to prepare for worse scenarios more than the ordinary"

Saeko merely nodded like a child as she finally ate the piece of lettuce she had been picking at.

"So how did your daughter end up?" Hiroyoshi asked "Is she alright?"

"Yes…turns out she wasn't hurt as bad as I thought" Saeko quietly added 'at least not by the time I saw her she wasn't'

"Well that's a good thing right?" Hiroyoshi replied "Do you know where she was when it happened?"

In a moment, she caught herself short at realizing that despite being confident friends with this man, it was suddenly a question that she couldn't quite honestly answer that question.

"She was near there…but she wasn't inside or anything" Saeko lied carefully before speaking a truth

Hiroyoshi caught the lie between his teeth, but he didn't seem to catch the right context of the lie. He wondered for a moment why his esteemed colleague would try to pass it off so lightly in front of him, and decided to probe further.

"You don't seem that happy about it" Hiroyoshi said" is something the matter?"

"Well…" Saeko knew she couldn't talk about the senshi, but it hurt to think about it. Carefully, she picked her own words apart and started explaining. She relayed as best as she could the events leading up to her arrival to and from her friend's house and the argument she had with her daughter when they got home. It was hard to compare the story without knowing the actual reason for the argument, but Hiroyoshi listened on, taking careful note as she explained the details. As she explained it without the senshi details; she somehow felt clearer in her mind than it had been before. When she had finished, Hiroyoshi took a minute to think things over.

"Sounds like you two didn't really listen to each other" Hiroyoshi answered finally

"Huh?" Saeko responded with some confusion

Saeko had listened hadn't she, heard every word; how Ami had boldly defined in clear terms how she gave everything she had to be a senshi. How Ami made her stop and think when she rattled on at her for insulting the comparison to duty that Saeko had passed off as an exaggeration.

"Well…" Hiroyoshi explained "…she didn't listen to your concerns and I guess you didn't listen to her side of the story either"

"That's crazy" Saeko dismissed "I did…"

"You did what any mother would do…" Hiroyoshi replied "That part nobody faults you for…but did you actually believe in Ami when she told you what she said?"

That took Saeko a moment to think about as she picked her words and thoughts carefully to answer the question. First of all it was kind of hard to compare what Saeko said to her fellow doctor to what really happened. But in Hiroyoshi's mind, did they have the same context? Well they did in a way, but the level of both was vastly different. In this case, Saeko's trust in her daughter was constituted on the grounds that she had thought she had known her daughter well enough that Ami had abhorred such risks. Last night had erased that misconception from her mind; the previous conclusion that Ami was not a risk taker had been reversed. But did that mean that Ami was irresponsible?

Briefly Saeko was lost in answering that question; how did one really believe your daughter when you didn't know the facts yourself? As Ami had related, and she had realized afterwards, Saeko was not an expert on the subject and couldn't dictate the dangers involved to a senshi. So when confronted with something as radical and as deadly as last night; could she believe her daughter and her friends word that what risks they took were – by their standards – typical and if so, did that make her concerns a product of cynical bias? That was a question with serious ramifications; if it was such the case, then she hadn't listened to her daughter at all and was now guilty of ignoring Ami's defense of her activities and rational attempt to explain things. As a result of such a rejection of belief, would Ami then be able to trust that her mother could believe her?

Hiroyoshi could see it in her eyes that Saeko was, unlike most people he had known, at least had the sense to think about past actions to see if they were just. In this case, Saeko was actually unable to judge as far as he could tell if Ami's actions were truly irresponsible. But in Saeko, he saw in her eyes that to a professional doctor or any profession where the expression a face told everything; that her mind that dawned on something missed in their brief talk last night and it had taken hindsight and time to generate thought properly. That she had without saying anything admitted being wrong was her strongest attribute.

"It's a lot harder when you don't know how she thinks isn't it?" Hiroyoshi continued "whether or not it's wrong or right, what it comes down to is your ability to believe in your daughter's word"

"I guess…" Saeko replied admitting defeat

Hiroyoshi leaned forward to eat his lunch as he thought.

"I would say she isn't really feeling safe now if you've accused her of something without hearing her side of the story, disregard the subject" Hiroyoshi spoke as he continued to think "but if she is as smart as you…she'll eventually come around to the same conclusion as you are right now and try talk to you again…"

"What do you mean?"

"Smart people think" Hiroyoshi spoke "If you and Ami are as smart as you keep telling me, she'll be thinking it over just as much as you are right now trying to find away to tell you her side of the story in a way that you can believe…and if she can't, she has friends just like you do to talk things over with right?"

"I guess…"

Hiroyoshi finished "I'm not an expert on daughters, even on my own two…but if you just give her the time to think about it…Ami will find a way to tell you what happened a lot easier that before…and when that time comes and Ami is ready to talk…listen to her…even if she wants to talk when you have to work…"

"I can't…"

"Sure you can…" Hiroyoshi spoke "you did it once already just this week…just make the time again"

Saeko sighed in defeat and briefly wondered why Hiroyoshi never became a psychologist or even a marriage counselor. The reason simply was that society enforced that one didn't have mental problems, just psychical shortfalls and failure to keep marriage afloat was the fault of the two persons from finding love in their union…was it? Saeko continued to think about the situation, before she even approached her daughter; she had to clear her own mind of all the misnomers and misunderstandings, both from her outsider's experience, and the ones that she had experienced thus far, from witnessing it herself and from her discussions with her daughter.

"Okay Hiroyoshi" Saeko nodded in acceptance "I'll do my best"

It was time to change the topic; they for different reasons didn't want to make their entire lunchtime about Saeko's daughter. For Saeko; it would be something she would have to think about later however. From her brief session with her associate; Saeko had come to learn that she would have to think about the issues that came up with Ami. Realizing that she didn't have a full understanding of the issue, she would have to rethink her position before confronting her daughter when she was ready to talk to again. When it came down to it, the one thing that was at the core of her problems in understanding was the one thing that her daughter had said; it was her duty to be a senshi. For someone who had used that word into repetition for over a decade, it was hard to imagine the term applying to her daughter and to a greater extent, to the senshi as a whole.

Hiroyoshi started on the other half of his sandwich and then thought of something else to say.

"Speaking of timetables, you know we have that meeting for later today right?" Hiroyoshi asked

"Yes" Saeko reported "any idea what it's about?"

"I don't know to be honest, but…" Hiroyoshi spoke before being interrupted by the door.

"Come in" Saeko told the door.

It opened and another fellow doctor appeared.

"You two are still having lunch?" Ryosuke asked and saw for himself the answer

"Why, what's wrong" Saeko replied with a tone of alarm

"Nothing wrong…just trying to find somewhere to eat without a police officer on my back" Ryosuke explained offhand "they have the cafeteria pretty much marked out as their territory at the moment"

"Well, Come on in and have a seat then" Saeko replied

The man did so and took the spare client seat to the left of Hiroyoshi. In a minute the three doctors continued their discussion on as before. While it had been a rather personal conversation until minutes before; neither Hiroyoshi nor Saeko would fault the man for interrupting them; after all, their topic now was one that all three doctors had a shared concern for it.

"…Yeah, I know what its about" Ryosuke spoke "I overheard one of the clerks upstairs this morning…they want to basically go over what we did wrong again as a group"

"That's going to take more than an hour…" Saeko sighed "Can't the administration just leave us doctors alone. It's not a factory down here…"

The two nodded their heads in agreement, it was an age old saying in the hospital community that an administration official was probably the least informed person about what a hospital was and how it operated. While the administration had done a marvelous job in funding the new equipment that they needed; it had been at the cost of staff billets and that had been one of the reasons why there were only a minimum number of doctors on staff and why it felt like they were counting every single Band-Aid. Understandably even hospitals had to stick to a budget, but the administration had been very conservative on spending despite the replacement of the hardware now complete.

"Well, I'm sure they'll learn a thing or two as well" Hiroyoshi spoke for the two others "it would be nice if they finally got more staff"

"Won't happen…not with people like Mei still in the administration office" Ryosuke noted a split second before Saeko did

"The head of our department has been saying it for ages" Saeko replied more educated on the subject "we need more help, last night proved it"

"Well, we'll see..." Ryosuke replied dryly, he had been at this hospital just long enough to know better. With that brief protest done, he had decided to change the subject. "So what did you think about the news?"

"What news?" Saeko asked

"You didn't hear?" Hiroyoshi queried; wondering if she had even bothered to watch a television in the last 18 hours. "That battle last night, they said all the senshi had shown up to fight"

"I…didn't know…" Saeko replied acting suprised "I've been too busy…"

"I'm amazed you missed out, you're usually the one to find out first" Hiroyoshi pointed out, understanding that her problems with her daughter had superseded any trivial details about last night.

What Saeko didn't mention was the obviously tinge of guilt in her chest at the subject. While previously accustomed to talk about the senshi; Saeko had suddenly found herself in an awkward position that this morning when the administration hounded her on the paramedic bag. Unlike before, and unaware to her associates, she had now become privy to just such information. It was a subtle but important change in affairs that Saeko just realized changed a lot more than just her relationship with her daughter. No longer was Saeko like the guys, in endless speculation over the plethora of subjects related to the sailor senshi…her blind speculation was now, or at least for this battle, informed speculation. And the worst part was she could not relate a single part of it.

Despite having a rather well engrained knowledge of the sailor senshi prior to her accidental discovery, Saeko now knew – thanks to one brief morning with daughter and one evening with the entire senshi – more than was reasonable and saying so would cause her fellow doctors to speculate her for things she didn't want to seen as. No more could she as careless in her speculation, worse; she could not let the slightest sign of hesitation tip her friends off that something wasn't right about their friend Saeko Mizuno. It was a balancing act of fact and speculation, and both had been changed for the clinical doctor.

"It is suppose to be a rare occurrence for so many to show up…at least they all were in the right place, that was one really messed up battle" Ryosuke added before chuckling "but it wasn't every senshi Hiro-san…nobody I've talked to said they saw Sailor moon junior or prince moon"

Saeko briefly wanted to correct that but found herself stopped by need to restrain herself.

"I wonder if anyone got the chance to take pictures…" Ryosuke pondered "I heard from a police detective that their CCTV room got blown to bits by something…so they don't have a single thing…"

"They don't?" Saeko replied, playing along in case her absence of remarks caught their attention.

"Nothing left of the room…" Ryosuke repeated "probably the only thing we'll get out of this one is all the interviews the police are conducting"

Their discussions could be compared to those nerds in their society had over the intricate consistencies in a show or character they liked. For Hiroyoshi and Ryosuke, the talk was reminiscing of their earlier days working at this hospital when the fairly routine discussion was on who the senshi came to rescue and who had come to do it. In their time, they developed about as good an understanding of them as the official police task force assigned to investigate their activities. They're understanding of the senshi was flawed, but they had the basics right and along with their understandings, they had their favorites, but no least favorites – since no true fan of the senshi could dislike one – and had developed an affinity to cheer for the times their favorite showed up.

Hiroyoshi continued to speculate "So, how do you think they faired?"

'Pretty badly' Saeko thought before replying "I don't know, I'd have to be a senshi to know that!"

* * *

Rei didn't really abhor the duties that came with being a shrine maiden, it had after all given her a home, a meal every night and something to focus her energy on, but there were times where it really didn't feel like it paid off. While Usagi and Minako had to entertain their respective families, Rei was left to entertain herself as she sat at the charms booth with nothing to do but hold the store front open. Business was slow today, like any other day around this time of the year; typically the shrine was a lot busier with people getting love charms prior to Christmas, and other impending preparations for new years. But this morning, much of the crowds were focused on the bigger attraction in the Minato area today. Already past lunch and coming close to the time she would be returning home from school. She grumbled at the wasted energy placed in her day, she could've spent more time meditating in the shrine.

She had done so upon her return home and did so very briefly. She had needed to cleanse herself of the images she had seen the night before; not just of the horrific scenes inside the police station, but stating at the body of her fallen comrade while another senshi reversed the damage. It had been almost too much, Rei was not one to falter in disturbing situations, but last night had pushed herself to the very limits. She had almost wanted to not leave the flame to continue on her search for answers. She could've left the task of running the stall to her faithful – If somewhat dimwitted – student of the Hikawa Shrine, Yūichirō Kumada, but he wasn't even here now and even if he was, he had been pulling double duty last week for her while she tackled her exams.

Last night had been all about cruelty. She had seen dead bodies, lain like lifeless dolls; all for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. All the way to the roof, she had seen it repeat, not dead – but badly wounded – people all struggling to stay awake let alone alive. It carried over as bad feeling to see so much and still face the next morning ignoring what had happen. But how else did a senshi continue to operate if she lamented on what had happened? It had been a question that she had asked herself all morning, all the senshi had, at least except the one who hadn't need to ask that question by now. The short answer was they had to ignore it, had they not done their bit in rescuing the people, saving lives that were nearly ended, and drive the enemy out of the building so better, more experienced paramedics could tend to the injured?

'Yes we had' was the universal answer, but was that good enough for those people who didn't live? Rei lived in a temple for which her religion told her the sprits could answer all kinds of questions if you prayed the right way. But Shinto didn't have an answer for the value of her deeds last night; saving lives while others hadn't been so lucky. It never had an answer for every scenario, just the assurances that it offered to those scared of fate's final act. You couldn't blame it for not having it written down somewhere, after all, the heartaches of senshi duties weren't something that the practitioners of Shinto had thought much about, let alone know one of their maidens was one. When it came down to it, she could only say they had done their best to save lives, and they had. That was the mission statement of every senshi right there, until the time for the new kingdom, it would be their task of ensuring the safety of the people.

Rei sighed, such time for thoughts could only come from an empty effort day, not one charm sold, nothing that would make her grandfather proud of. She decided that if she had time to think uninterrupted about the morality of the mission of the senshi had undertaken, then she might as well close up shop for the day. Rei picked up the display boxes and walked them to the back of the stand, stowing them somewhere safe. She then returned to the counter and closed her money box and put it in her pull string bag that she had taken out with her this morning. Once she did a quick inspection of her surroundings to see everything was neat and tidy, she walked outside to lower the wooden doors that doubled as shade for the customers during their purchases. Having lived her life at this place, Rei had the procedure down to only a few minutes. Upon the closing of the third such window, Rei returned to collect her pull string bag and exited the building.

"What a waste…and I have to look over my assignment work later" Rei arched her back for a stretch before walking back to her home only thirty meters away.

Had she closed up sooner, Rei might not have noticed the footsteps coming up the pathway to the temple grounds. She worried at irony for a moment at what disservice it would appear for a customer to show up just as she was about to leave for overdue rest, and stayed to wait and kindly hope that he or she wasn't asking her to reopen the store. To her relief, it wasn't a customer, however to her surprise someone she wasn't expecting.

"Ami?"

Ami stood there, backpack over her shoulder and looking like she had been run over by a bus. Messed up and looking exhausted; it was almost painful to see the genius in this state.

"Rei…" Ami replied simply before asking what for her was the near impossible "…I need a place to stay"

* * *

It would've been wrong of Rei to merely dismiss this as merely a house call. From the moment the resident shrine maiden made proper eye contact on Ami, she could tell something was very wrong. After conducting her guest to her room, Rei had gone off to get some tea but upon discovering that no hot water was readily available; she kindly instructed Yūichirō to bring it to her room when it was ready. In several minutes from Ami' arrival; the two were sitting at the low table in Rei's room.

"What happened?" Rei started off

"I…I just needed to talk to someone…" Ami started

She hadn't made her pathway to Rei's place direct. In fact it had been over two hours since she left her apartment, far longer than one needed to walk to the temple. In all, the walk had helped Ami clear her head, she just didn't have it clear her mind of the problems she had worried about, just the anger she felt. She first had tried at the park, at first thinking in the open air about the situation, but the combination of chilly air and people had made it hard to clear her mind and Ami had decided that she would finally seek the opinion of a friend.

"Well I'm here for you" Rei replied "What's on your mind"

"Well, mom and I had a talk last night…"

Rei simply nodded before asking "What happened?"

"Well you see…" Ami started to retell what happened the previous night and this morning. She was a lot calmer than she had been when she heard the answering machine, not that Ami was really one for getting angry. Rei listened on, reconstructing the series of events as her friend went into detail, ascribing what she and her mother had said, eventually this morning when her mother promised to talk before promptly negating that promise for the sake of her duty…a word that Ami's mother had insulted her for comparing senshi business to doctoring. From what Rei could tell, it was a misunderstanding; but it had none the less shook even her that Ami's mother could be so cruel to her daughter after all she had been through. The resident shrine maiden knew she wasn't really educated in maturity, she admitted to it; but Rei could tell that last night that neither Mizuno had exercised any rationality in their brief midnight debate.

Despite the flawed nature of their state of minds and the poor choice of words for their arguments, it none the less was a serious thing to consider. During her time at Setsuna's house, Rei hadn't taken much attention to the state of shock that Saeko was in. Her attention had been focused on the girl across the table; at the time in a coma thanks to the exhaustion her shock had given her. From what she had gathered from the other senshi after they had gone home however was shared concern, especially from setsuna who had after all been by her side the whole time she had visited the house. Of course at the time, Rei had other concerns besides Ami, but now it seemed in hindsight, it should have been her first concern.

"She really called you irresponsible?" Rei said with some alarm

"She did…" Ami confirmed "At first I thought it was a mistake…but this morning, she called me a problem…"

Rei's face froze at hearing that; it couldn't mean anything good. Was Ami's mother seriously reversed on her opinions? Had the near tragedy of her daughter's life ending struck a cord and now she was regretting it? Rei had moments ago assumed that it had been a brief misunderstanding the night before, but upon hearing about the phone message, it did not prove that it was the case. Something had changed in the mind of Ami's mother, and it proved to be just as worrisome as Ami relayed.

"…I don't think she understands fully what we do" Ami continued to explain "I tried to explain that's all apart of what we do…but I don't think she was listening"

Rei nodded understandable; how did one explain the dangers of being a senshi to one who wasn't?

"Well, I guess you have to understand how she sees things Ami" Rei started to cast her opinion "You were almost killed, you were pretty lucky that we had Saturn along in your team…"

Ami nodded before asking "Then what do I do? She doesn't even trust me anymore to listen to me"

That one stumped Rei; there wasn't really a lot of explanation to what to do in situations like this, even for normal problems. What's worse, being a senshi was not a normal problem; it was dangerous work, but so was being a construction worker…the difference between those two jobs was one had an understandable and well established risk, the other simply didn't. Children didn't wish they could be a professional senshi because of the dangers; they did so because of the status.

"…and then I came here" Ami concluded her story "I thought of asking the others, but everyone else is busy right now…so I'm sorry if…"

"Stop" Rei motioned. Ami did as commanded.

"I guess I can understand your hesitation…" Rei replied "But if you think I would turn you away like this…you've been my friend far too long for me to do that"

"Thank you" Ami replied softly

"I guess we all have problems with home sometimes…though in your case…" Rei thought about it "…I mean after what happened at the shopping center…I thought…"

"I don't know what she is thinking…" Ami spoke depressingly, but with some intelligence "if she doesn't trust me anymore then…I don't know what to do"

"To be honest?" Rei responded "I think you should think about what your mother said and maybe see if there is a way…"

"…I don't want to return home…not yet" Ami replied "But…I do want to fix this"

Ami probably would've been surprised that Rei had felt that was going to be the case the moment she had eyes on Ami at the top of the stairs. In her instruction to Yūichirō, she also asked him to prepare a spare futon. The timing wasn't really the best, but as Rei had just said, she would not turn away her friend, besides where else could she go? Setsuna, Usagi, Minako? Makoto was an option, but she was now staying at Usagi's place for Christmas and it would make matters worse if she had to cancel plans. So for Ami, Rei was the only place she could go to. Besides, hadn't she offered a week ago her home as a place to stay for Christmas?

"Well, I have no problem with you staying for now…" Rei replied sighing "But on one condition"

"What is that?" Ami looked up in surprise

Rei leaned over and reached for her school bag. In a moment she produced a thick history textbook and her notebook and placed them on the table with a heavy drop. Rei bowed and raised her hands to pray to her guest. Ami saw without being told how badly she had wanted help and nodded approvingly.

"Best deal I've made today"

* * *

_Author's Commentary: This chapter was actually alot easier to work out after the previous chapter since by now i had a fairly good idea of what the disptue between Ami and Saeko was really all about. I didnt quite out all the details straight away thought, but this chapter was really the start of the rest of the story leading upto the third act. _


	12. Chapter 11: Discovery process

**Chapter 11: Discovery process**

It had been a long day for Vita but she felt her initial task was coming closer to completion. Having spent all day on the task, she had started to sensed then seen the end of it. The process accelerated as she had hoped, when she finally decoded the meaning of the labels on these tapes. Ones no marked with a store number were written in a way that to her, didn't make sense at first. But after identifying where the cameras looked, she sensed a pattern emerging and eventually had worked out the finer details. With that in mind, Vita had picked the VHS tapes that were the ones she was looking for.

After exhausting every possible angle of the battle, Vita found the one she was looking for, Tape 219; second floor, Central section, light pole camera 9. It had clearly picture, much clearer than the lenses and mechanics that a VCR would have accomplished – the orb did have some useful converting tools – and provided a much better image of the people she was most interested in.

"Now, let's see where this goes"

In the top left corner, the two senshi of her keen interest finally shown up. She had given up long ago trying to workout the identity of the other two senshi, the cameras for them simply didn't exist and it was quite clear from the orb footage that the auto-troops lousy aim was the reason for it. This footage was even able to see Achen, confident in his final hour of life; how odd it was to see him on screen like this, had he forgotten that they had security cameras? Vita continued to watch the battle she had seen a dozen times now, each time watching the same progression of the senshi defeating; first the heavy, then the light auto-troops. It was slightly disappointing to see their fearsome auto-troops destroyed so easily, but on the other hand, it gave her an appreciation for the power of the senshi, these after all had been the same people who killed her teacher.

When the dust settled, they vanished and the tapes subsequently showing nothing but aftermath. This was where she stopped and went back. The very moment the senshi show up…where did they come from? They ran of course…but from where? Vita opened her eyes and the orb vanished in a moment. Her surroundings were the same, but the early evening sky out her window had replaced the broad daylight of a few hours ago, which it had in turn replaced the predawn when she had started this long and tedious job. Sleep was not something that came easily to a colonel in the dark kingdom, and she her practice had made her use to very little of it. The meditation that she had practiced with her teacher had strengthened her endurance.

On the floor to her left, she marked the camera's position and then compared the floor plans again to see what it saw on paper. There was a bakery – the one that Uranus and Venus had crashed into – a fruit store and, between those two businesses an alley way that according to the plans had no fire exit. As she had suspected, there was a place they had come from, not teleportation as Denisa and the other warriors assumed. One could easily think along those lines when dealing with their own sort of magic, but Azrael and Vita had long since come to the conclusion that seemed to indicate the senshi didn't know how to teleport.

All the good for Vita, it made the task easier, if her impressions were correct, they had been at the building and had transformed in that alleyway when things went bad. To her own mistake, she hadn't bothered to rewind to the moment before the battle began to see if anyone walked into the alley, but she had noted the timestamp for future reference. She replaced the tapes that she had placed on the floor and looked at the remaining ones that she couldn't quite decide what they were. They had been at the bottom of the third box and were labeled with codenames that neither matched the store codes or the confusing codes they used for the outside cameras.

She picked one at random and placed it in the center of the incantation ring; it was labeled L3F1. Again she closed her eyes and the orb that she had used all day to inspect the other tapes returned and repeated the process. The picture was pretty clear, what it was what Vita described as the building's elevator foyer; a room which had a camera mounted outside to watch who came on and off the vertically raising and lowering car boxes. She opened her eyes again and looked at the map for reference. She hadn't noticed it before mainly because of her interest in where they came from, but upon seeing the contents of that alley way, she worked out it was a triple set of elevator shafts that connected with this alleyway.

"That might explain why they came from the alleyway…" Vita looked over to the tape she had picked at random "L3F1…tapes with this sort of notation must mean ones in their elevator foyers"

There were twelve such tapes with eight more with a similar notation – in their case, the letter B was in place of the F; each of them with the two letters and two numbers. Logic told her from her experience with the outside cameras, that the numbers dictated the location; with one number representing the floor it was on while the other said where and what camera it was for that area. What marked it different was the lettering; like with the tapes that were of the stores, they had a letter at the end had an obvious notation. Vita correctly deduced that the S was for Store, so if that was the case, then that meant L or F had to mean for these rooms.

Vita picked up the tapes labeled L1F1, L1F2 and L1F3 and placed them in the circle and started to watch. It was a process that took upwards of fifteen minutes, but with simultaneous viewing of the three tapes; made the process a lot quicker than the police's own investigation. What she discovered in the three was a similarity in the layout of the foyers, but not one that the map described on screen; she continued to watch however until their conclusion. It confirmed her suspicions of nothing. Having memorized the layout according the security camera, she observed her map to look for the layouts similar to that of what she had seen. Three came up identical, but none appeared identical on the same floor.

That told her something. F meant Floor, while L meant the name of the room for that part of the building. It meant that while she had not found what she was after this time, Vita had found what she had needed to know what she was after. With little energy spent on agonizing on wasted time, Vita confirmed her findings and marked out on her map the place she had checked, writing down the code number of the tape for future reference. Next she pulled tapes L3F1, L4F1 and L5F1 and placed them in the circle replacing the tapes she had just removed.

Again the same view came up, this time the tapes all had varying degrees of difference, but two looked similar still, L3F1 and L4F1. She watched on for another thirty minutes, seeing people walk in and out, doing various things for all manner of reasons. Then came the moment when all the cameras jolted with static – the mechanic answer to a blink – as the time when Achen's party passed by. Every camera had done this and it was as good a time stamp as the one in the bottom right-hand corner. The angle of the camera guaranteed a view of the lift wells looking towards the outside and for awhile the activity going on there seemed to be the only thing interesting until–

"What was that?" Vita noticed as screen blurred for a moment and saw in an instant her answer. The doors that led to the center shaft slowly pulled away, and out sprung two senshi. They spent very little time standing around and ran towards the lighted outside. The time stamp she noted matched up cleanly with the time they appeared on the 219 camera. Vita stopped to remove the other tapes from her orb's feed and rewound the tape to see what had caused the disturbance. The orb's higher quality had in fact helped restore the tapes originally static split second cut between the times when the flash of white light had blinded the camera. Looking again, this time slowly at the center lift doors, she saw it happen again.

"Again…" Vita spoke as she rewound it to another minute before. It was dark inside and the narrow slit view offered little description, but she could see inside a person standing, she couldn't see much else, but in a moment of foggy clarity, the figure turned into the source of the white light. With that, Vita had no doubts; she had found her senshi, and confirmed without a doubt, that they did transform, not teleport in as the others had all suspected.

"So now…how to find out who they are…" Vita spoke as she placed the tape labeled L4F1 with the positive evidence to her side.

Now the task had been made just a bit harder. Of the tapes that were store feeds, or outside feeds, or the other tapes of the lift foyers, she still had a number of tapes left to check. This she did. Knowing now what L4 meant in the lexicon of these codes, she collected all the tapes with such a permutation. After collecting over twenty tapes, Vita put back the ones that didn't have L4 as part of the code, this left her five tapes; L4B1, L4B2, L4C1, L4C2 and L4C3. If there were three elevator shafts in this L4 place of the building, why did she have five tapes? A quick inspection of both L4B1 and L4B2 confirmed that these were similar views to the ones to before, that left the other three as the ones she wanted.

As before, she placed the tapes on the floor and started her orb up again. Focusing now on her goal, now in sight, she watched the three views for another half an hour, again seeing people she recognized coming and going, some suspicious people, some very weird people too but eventually she came up to the moment that the attack was about to take place. At that very moment, all three elevators were empty. This worried the colonel and as the clock came closer to the time, so did her concern. But like all things expected, they eventually came; in the center lift, the doors opened up on the third floor and three women, one older than the two others, who walked in and stood. They briefly chatted right until the moment…where as expected, the cameras all jerked for a moment and the three inside fell to the floor.

Vita focused on the lift car with people in it, the other two were empty and she stopped focusing her orb on them. For the next ten minutes, she waited in dark silence. The camera could barely see the occupants inside, even with the automatic night vision, the camera was focused on nothing. She noted the time stamp was coming to the moment of the disturbance and she spent the time trying to make out the occupants. A middle aged woman, professional looking by their standards, and two teenagers; by their chatter between them, she could see they were one group. Was one of them, no two of them a sailor senshi? The blonde looked familiar, but the two darker haired ones made it hard to distinguish who would be the other.

As the moment came, she was disappointed to find that a moment before the anticipated flash of white light, the camera had gone to static, not from the white light, but from losing signal.

"Damn it…" Vita cursed at herself

The image never returned. Until the end of the tape, Vita got an eyeful of static. How remarkable that the camera die just before she was about to see her prize. Coincidence? Vita, as an intelligence officer; was suppose be believe the word was a myth and at once applied thought and her instincts to the situation. She quickly thought about what she had seen so far. In the case of the camera outside, it went fuzzy for a moment on two occasions. The first the notable arrival of Achen's platoon of auto-troops and then just now when the white flash of light engulfed the car behind the center door. Further, the static jump had been seen on virtually every tape so far in the case of Achen's arrival, but not for the case of this transformation, except for the one outside in room L4F1.

That led Vita to believe that it was probably because of the magic involved in transforming and teleporting that caused the cameras to go out, though in the case of the former, the magic's effect on cameras was less effective since it required less power. That was complex speculation, but it did seem to have a lot of founding evidence before her. So if the tapes all jumped from minor fluctuations of magical power, what caused the tape inside the lift to break just prior to the magic working?

"Lets see…" Vita rewound the tape back to just prior to the static wipeout. There as she had counted were three people…and that cat that the blonde had in the bag...how did she miss that the first time? She rewound again and saw again the cat exit the bag and onto the elevator floor where it did nothing for a big before standing up and looking at one of the darker haired girls. Its mouth was moving, but with no audio; Vita could only guess at what noise it made. It took a moment, but at the very end; it clicked together in her head that the mouth had moved in a way human's did for words. Curious, Vita rewound the tape again and this time watched the mouth. Again it looked exactly like she thought it was doing and then started again this time to lip read.

"…have no choice…me handle other…first" Vita recited what Artemis had roughly said.

A talking cat, well that was enough confirmation right? Humans did not have talking pets except for the ones in you stores that were made of electronic sprites and required a computer to play them. Vita replayed the video again just to be sure and again, confirmed the cat was indeed speaking to someone, after which she kept her eye on the cat to see what it did next. When the two girls suddenly stood up, the car disappeared off screen and it was then the camera went to static.

"…Let me handle other problem first" Vita repeated to herself as she opened her eyes and stopped the orb from projecting its images "could he mean the camera?"

That certainly made sense, after all the police had these tapes and had they been as smart as her, they would've…but they hadn't had they? They had been doing things like this for years and hadn't caught the senshi.

"So does that mean the two people who stood up were the senshi I am after?" Vita closed her eyes again and resumed.

She rewound the tape all the way back to when they first entered the lift, with the light on and the night vision off, she got a clearer view of the three women entering the lift. The blonde she noted, had the bag with the cat inside; that made her a senshi for sure. But which one of the two darker haired ones had stood up with the blonde? Vita watched the tape for a while before tracing it back to the person she had her eyes on. It should have been obvious; the younger of the two, both senshi were teenagers after all. At the right moment, Vita confirmed the blonde haired teenager and the darker bluish haired teenager stood, that confirmed – without actually seeing the transformation – they were the people Vita had tried to find.

"…Finally"

* * *

"Finally…" Saeko spoke as she turned off her desk lamp put her pens away.

Despite her proclamation, it was yet over. She still had the meeting to attend, but her foot high pile of paperwork that had come from the emergency last night had made her afternoon felt like it had attenuated as she stretched on to finish. But she had purposely pushed herself to do all the work since she would have to come back to it if she didn't have it all done by the time the meeting started. For someone who was suppose to learn how to heal people; Saeko if felt somewhat odd that over half her time was spent in an office doing paperwork for every manner of reasons. Worse, that the skill in which she became very efficient at it had to be a skill every doctor required now was one that would have alarmed her patients had they the wit to understand how a hospital really worked.

In the time between reading, writing and form filling, Saeko had thought about her talk with Hiroyoshi before. He was of course right still about the fact that neither her or Ami had listened to each other, and was probably right about giving Ami time to think about things today. It of course gave Saeko somewhere to start with her own thinking; ignoring the distance created by her fight last night. She concentrated on the issues that were brought up. She had spent most of her time on the irresponsibility question, but now she had shifted back to the larger question that bugged her.

'…why is being with them so important that your willing to die for it' Saeko thought again. Hurtful words now that she had the benefit of sleep and hindsight to think about them more, as she did for her daughter's answers.

'Because it's my duty…' Saeko pondered, thinking how that single word her had stung her hard last night and its effect was still present in her mind. What duty did Ami feel she needed to perform that in Saeko's mind, were reckless and life risking. It was hard to comprehend, but Saeko was not one to give up when the question was tough. Something fundamental had changed about her perception of the senshi, but she had not forgotten her previous impressions. From there, Saeko tried to compare the two to find her answer. But before she could attempt another go at the logical circus, she was interrupted by the sound of her door being knocked on.

"You ready for the meeting?" Hiroyoshi asked peering into the office, seeing Saeko in a state of deep thought.

Saeko sighed and replied "I'm all done here, we heading up?"

"Yeah, I'm just heading around to get everyone now" Hiroyoshi replied "You alright?"

"Just think about what you said today"

"I see" he replied softly "Well, I'll see you upstairs in a bit then"

Saeko looked back down at her desk at the time to see that the meeting would in fact start late.

"I better call home…" Saeko told herself as she looked for a reason to delay her departure to this meeting.

She quick dialed her own home and after five rings got the answering machine.

"Hello…I'm sorry Ami, I might have to be another hour late, and the meeting is starting later than we hoped…But I've done all my paperwork, so when it's over, I can come straight home…I'll see you then…"

Saeko hung up the phone and looked up.

'That was odd, it was pretty late now and she still wasn't awake?' Saeko thought to herself

For a moment she thought about the extent of the injury she had and perhaps she had just needed a lot of time to sleep it off, but that somehow didn't make sense. The next thing that occurred to her was that maybe she had gone out again, if that was the case, where was she? Did she have to talk to a fellow senshi about what happened last night? Was it for something more mundane like an evening walk…but did Ami ever do that? Saeko felt all she was doing was asking more questions with no answer. With that in mind, she turned to leave her office.

* * *

One of the curious things about their society was its habit…obsession to obtain information about itself. Not just as a whole; but right down to the individual person; from their name, their age, their gender, where they lived, where they worked, and even selective parts of their personal history depending what they wanted to know. Such information seemed trivial until you realized the applications that a large amount of data had. Their Society was fixated on using such information to improve itself, like asking each other a certain question and then collating the results of the question to apply to all manner of purposes. What's more, not only did they collect the information for general purposes like counting how many people wanted something, they also made it possible to look at every individual's answer without great difficulty…such as creating a way to best to facilitate you found the right person.

Vita found all of this amazing and at the same time disconcerting. Did their society not fear that information could be used against them if in the proper hands? It was probably a fear they had, but not really thought too much about, after all these records were not freely accessible everywhere. After all, they had gotten these records from what their society seemed a place of authority. But it seemed that the police station themselves hadn't even realized the value of such information. After all, Denisa said only one, unarmed guard had been watching the room…from another room next door. It was like an afterthought; the information was too much taken for granted that its value seemed neglected.

"Well, it's their own fault they hadn't thought about that"

It had taken her awhile to work out how the disks all worked; she had first tried one at a time, until she realized that they couldn't read. Failing that, Vita studied them carefully for awhile; after several experiments, she had worked out that several disks were needed with the same or similar labeling to make the data appear. To vita, it appeared to be a very cunning way to hide data; how strange that they had thought of such an elaborate security measure, but had not the wit to place an armed guard at the door. Upon working out what the various disks all contained, Vita discarded to the side the ones she had deemed useless for the moment and focused on the ones that held what she believed the answers she wanted.

Database; Vita knew that word of human language, that's what they called the things they stored all their collected information on. Databases were towering lists that contained everything they had asked and everyone they had asked. It was the one stop place to find what she needed. Having rested only long enough to regain her concentration; Vita decided to not toil anymore on the method she had used to check the VHS boxes…she had great difficulty reading these little silver boxes and didn't want to force herself to try. It was odd in hindsight that the server that Denisa obtained actually became useful; neither she nor her teacher had asked for it, but right now it proved to be very useful.

At the center of the circle Vita had been using all day, she had lugged the unexpectedly heavy server box onto the circle and inserted into the slots on the front every single one of the silver disks that had said Database Server 1 on the front label – Despite being from the dark kingdom, Vita was not computer illiterate – and proceeded to arrange her orb to both power the device;. It would have helped if Denisa had brought the necessary power cables and instruments that came along with such a device but it didn't matter. In roughly five minutes she had arranged the orb to power the machine as well as project its image and input her commands.

"Okay…I'm in"

She saw, what to anyone familiar with the technology saw when these machines were turned on. In this case, Vita's view was of the Windows NT-4 server log on promp, this she bypassed very quickly as she commanded the Orb to crack the password – such weak security measures that tried to act as a barrier methods were useless to her – and started to look around for what she was after. While the machine loaded to the desktop at the pace at which she felt too slow to be of any use in real life. Vita looked down at the machine in curiosity; Human technology was strange to her, this machine despite its function didn't operate like their orbs did and it required an interface added to the hardware itself to could show them the information. This was perplexing to her; Vita was rather use to the hardware acting as the interface; just like the humans had designed televisions.

The loading completed itself half a minute after she had cracked the password and saw for herself the familiar interface that most of their information storage devices seemed to have now. Vita quickly translated the icons on the right and found the one she wanted

"TMPS Database Searcher…" Vita told herself as she made the cursor select it

The program itself was a unique program; designed for the exclusive use of the Tokyo metropolitan police's Service, this software was recently developed as an easy way of identifying people from security cameras and missing persons as well as a number of other simple uses. While not an independent database itself, the program was designed to search other databases within the government it has access to and come back with all information possible on the person or persons it was looking for and combined the results into one page.

The program had massive choice of databases to search; it interconnected and combined with all the major national databases; such as the Koseki – the national family registry – and the Jūminhyō – the national registry for residential addresses – that was maintained by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the National Police Agency's own database of all police officers, nation wide, in all the prefecture's police forces. But the majority of the databases that the program had access to were local level person registries from public establishments. Those databases came from institutions such as middle and high schools, universities, technical colleges and hospitals.

The pure mass of information was large as a result, too large for one server to have all the entries on the one disk let alone three servers. As a result, both as a means to ease the strain on the connection to the server and for faster access to data, the Minato police station database was designed to keep on disk a copy of the records of people living in the Minato area, as well and copies every public establishment database in their immediate use. For access to the entire database however; a dedicated connection was used to link Minato up with the central database server farm inside the police headquarters building at Kasumigasek and central database server farm inside the Ministry of Internal Affairs headquarters in the same part of Tokyo.

As apart of its function to keep up to date information, Minato police station's servers automatically copied periodical updates of information for its database from the various sources that the database required to search from. This list included the Central servers at both the ministry and police headquarters at Kasumigasek, as well as from the public establishments that resided within its own district. The general result was an easily accessible, one of a kind umbrella search engine for personal information. The Tokyo metropolitan police had been the first to implement this gigantic system and it was hoped by the year 2000 at the latest, every police station in the country would be using this system.

In a few seconds, the program had loaded. At once Vita was suddenly confronted with a set of three error messages at the top of the menu. Then a dialog box appeared over the top.

"Error 404: could not find connection" Vita repeated "okay"

The dialogue box disappeared and she read the three warning errors, the first two in yellow and the last one in red

'Warning, Could not detect Minato District Database server 2. Please contact administrator'

'Warning, Could not detect Minato District Database server 3: Please contact administrator'

'Warning, Could not detect VPN Connection to TMPS Headquarters, Database search can only look in local database only. Please contact administrator'

That annoyed Vita; did she need all the database discs running to search? She would have to find out. The last warning didn't worry her too much, despite its appearance of urgency; at worst, if the people she was looking for didn't live in the area, then she could as easily try and connect the server hardware to this VPN thing and access the data she could not get. Vita looked down at her menu options, apart from the error messages; she was so impressed with the program and how the base menu offered her several simple options.

"Find" she commanded

The screen changed upon her command and a new window came up with a lot of value inputs. Vita started to read them off slowly

'Name, Surname, Date of Birth, Gender, Residence, Occupation, hair color, eye color…' Vita thought she it was pretty impressive to be able to ask for all these details. At the bottom it asked which databases to search; all, residential, license, school, institutions, government. Glad she would not have to search every single file on record for an exact duplicate of with that, Vita brought up the pictures of the three women she had identified as the target subjects to know what to say to the computer.

It had taken her close to an hour of her afternoon backtracking with the other VHS tapes to find a very good picture of them not moving. The task made all the more problematical by the complicated code system that the building used for its cameras. But she had found them, all three in the one place. To her surprise, they were ironically at the time at a toy store looking what she found out where imitation sailor senshi toys that some civilian in their society had made for merchant sale. It was ironic, two of the for-real senshi, one of whom had even acted like a child at looking seeing their impressive toy counterparts.

'What arrogance' Vita's mind told herself as she remembered telling herself.

With the images in clear view, she took her sights on the one who had not looked at the toys; clearly these two girl's elder in age. Noting the characteristics of the lady, she entered in the data.

"Female, Older than 30 but younger than 50, Dark Blue hair, Blue eyes, height higher than 150 centimeters, shorter than 180 centimeters"

On the screen, the Orb entered the correct data each of the fields that Vita had selected for her search. It then came up with another prompt.

"Warning, Could not detect Minato District Database server 2, Minato District Database server 3. This may affect the search results, do you wish to continue?" she read to herself 'well that answers my question, if she doesn't show up on these disks, then I'll search the other two sets'

She ordered the server to do it anyway. The search commenced at once; audibly indicated by the sound of the rapid clicking noise the IBM server made as it looked for the answer it had been asked to find. The computer sifted through its millions of records stored to bring up the one she wanted. In a minute it brought up a list that matched the description that she had fit all the criteria.

'Found 272 matches from 87,500 records' Vita was shocked, it would have taken weeks to check each record, this search function was very useful.

Below, it displayed below the names by in alphabetical order. To the left of each record was a simple 200 by 200 pixel picture of each person for easy instant recognition of the finer details a face had, but the pictures were not very high quality, they had probably been the same ones they used for permits that them operate cars. It took a long time to check them all, but when she came to the 272nd entry, she had not found an identical image to the one she had.

"Alright…so it's not on these disks" Vita determined. Disappointed that she could not find it in the first go, she resigned to the fact that it was likely that the record might be on the other disks.

She deactivated the server, shutting it down like she had learnt to do properly. When it had turned off, she briefly stopped the orb from doing its magic and replaced all the disks with the ones from Minato District Database server 2. The process took just over a few minutes and soon all the disks had been replaced. Reactivating the orb and having it resume its control of the server, Vita turned it back on. After she went through the same loading process and breaking the password on these disks as well; Vita entered the same program again, thankfully on the disks as well and promptly went to work searching for with the same criteria.

It vaguely worried the colonel of intelligence that her search hadn't turned up anything, this could be from the technical error of not having the other disks read, but it could also be from a number of other issues. Her estimation the subject's age and the assumption that she did live within the Minato district for example were in reality wild guesses. In this case, the latter was a greater problem than the first. If the search didn't turn up anything the first time around, Vita could simply expand the search, but it turned out that she was not on their records all together, then that created a whole new problem.

'Found 325 matches from 87,500 records' Vita noted the increase in results. As before, she slowly scrolled down the list of pictures and names, comparing each one to the one she had to the left.

"Hasegawa, Nodoka…Hiiragi, Usagi…Hiiragi,Yuki…Konoe, Kaede…Konoe, Yue…Miyazaki, Tomoyo…" Vita read off the names as she scrolled down slowly inspected the pictures with the eventually she came up on the on that matched the face "Mizuno, Dr Saeko!"

The orb selected the profile and the full details of Doctor Saeko Mizuno came up on the display. Like the program was functioned to do, it had collected all the data from all the databases that had a reference for a Doctor Saeko Mizuno in it. At top of the page, it listed all the databases it found results in, which included; the koseki, the Jūminhyō, the Tokyo district's driver license registry, Jūban Secondary General Hospital staff database, and finally the Azabu Jūban district high school student database. This didn't immediately interest Vita, the details below did.

The picture was fuzzy, but she was able to make out the distinct features. It surprised Vita that her profile picture looked rather recent, but upon reading, this was explained away by the place she worked at having updated their profiles once a year for security reasons. Her details all were pretty specific and next to each detail it cited what database it had collected it from. She knew how to drive a car, she had a job, listing her title and how long she had worked there, her residence was listed as that of an apartment roughly five kilometers away and her medical license was shown to be valid.

"How very interesting" vita noted "All this information on one database"

In personal details, it said she was not married, indicating to the right in details that she had been until several years ago. Her parents were still alive and living in another part of the country. She also had a daughter

"Mizuno, Ami" Vita repeated the name and noted to the left that it had a word that said 'view profile'

"View Mizuno Ami's profile" Vita ordered

What she got was an error message.

'Error, Could not detect Minato District Database server 1. Please contact administrator'

That was odd Vita thought to herself before commanding "Return to the search menu, search for Mizuno, Ami"

The computer again warned of the absence of its two counterpart servers; and upon approval to look anyway. In several seconds, it had come up back with its results.

'Found 0 matches from 87,500 records' Vita read the results and cursed at herself at the inevitability "Orb, extract the results on Saeko Mizuno and then turn off the server"

The Orb did so; taking a complete clone image of the page on the subject that Vita had determined was one of the three people outside the toy store. In another few minutes, the orb exited the program and shut the server down. Once again, Vita performance the task of exchanging the disks around for the ones that the computer told her had the girl she was looking for. When this was completed, the server started up again and this time Vita entered the password – she remembered it – and returned to the search function.

"Search for Mizuno, Ami"

The computer once again warned of the absence of its two counterpart servers; and upon approval to look anyway. In several seconds, it had come up back with its results.

'Found 3 matches from 87,500 records' Vita read the results

Well, that was both promising and worrisome, the results at least indicated – much to Vita's relief – that the records of people named Mizuno split between the first and second database. But the colonel of intelligence was not expecting three results. That complicated factors; despite the vast number of names to choose from, the sheer number of people on this world didn't permit complete individuality. But for there to be three Ami Mizuno's in the same area? That just defied probability in Vita's mind. Knowing that she would get nowhere without looking, she continued on anyway to see who of the three was the Ami Mizuno she was after.

The first one had no picture. Upon inspection of the record, Vita would have learnt that this Ami Mizuno was born three years ago and was the daughter of a Sayuki Mizuno whom had previously lived in Kobe. Without a thought, it would have been easily concluded that she didn't match the description of neither of the darker haired girls on her picture. The second one had a picture, but did not resemble the young teenager in any way. Had Vita bothered to inspect this record, she would have learn that this Ami Mizuno was a grey haired, aging woman in her late 70s whom had been an accountant at a bank prior to her retirement 10 years ago. She was widowed and had three children, none of whom had the name of Saeko. Vita had ignored those two records upon instantly seeing the third and final record.

"This girl…yes…" Vita looked at the picture and then back at the profile "Open up the third result"

The picture changed at once. Up on the screen, the display picture showed a bright faced young Ami Mizuno for what appeared to be her school ID card. On top, she noted that it listed the places the information it had obtained these results as being similar to the ones

'Name; Ami Mizuno. Aged; 17. Mother's name; Doctor Saeko Mizuno' she read off the connecting factors.

It connected perfectly; this Ami Mizuno was the girl she had been looking for all day. Since dawn her objective had been to look for the identify of the sailor senshi from pile of records that their raid had stolen and now, right in front of her she had what she had been looking for. Just to be sure; Vita looked at the other attributes; they were all correct. Ami had blue hair, blue eyes, roughly the same height as her mother and was a high school student nearby. She was the person in the picture.

"So this girl…and her friend" Vita spoke "they are what the sailor senshi look like"

That conclusion had come to her when she had seen the VHS tapes of their transformation, Vita even had a vague clue which sailor senshi was who. Venus had to be she figured was the one with the long blond hair, she after all had the cat in her bag that skillfully spoke and disabled cameras. Vita still didn't have a single thing on her name, thought she would still check the database for something based on appearance, now that the database had found one sailor senshi's identity, it would be a lot easier – she hoped – to identify the other one. But for the moment, Vita relished that had managed to confirm the identity of the sailor senshi she summarized as Sailor Mercury.

All the evidence backed her being a senshi. She had spent an hour triple checking the video feeds that went from the toy store to the elevator car that the senshi transformed into. Vita even went the extra measure of double checking the tape L4F1 to see if this dark haired girl appeared after the two senshi had left the lift. Instead of seeing her after the battle was over, she said the aftermath of the battle when Mercury and Venus were joined with Saturn to recover Saeko and nobody else to leave in a hurry.

"So the two girls are sailor senshi…and the older one is the mother of a sailor senshi…"

Now wasn't that interesting. A lot of this would have to be confirmed of course to be useful, but it wouldn't take too much to make use of this information. The moment of eureka had passed now for Vita and now her task had started anew. Now knowing the identity a sailor senshi and close to cracking the identity of the other; how could they best make use of the information? That would require some serious thought, but the energy for speculation had long since depleted from Vita. Looking outside the window, the evening sky greeted her again, just like it had when she had started this laborious task.

It had been a very long day for her and now she had found something, it was time to take a rest. Vita ordered the orb to clone the image of Mizuno Ami's profile and to turn off the server again. Once this was accomplished, she disabled the orb and placed it in a safe place, its information now more valuable that her life.

"Tomorrow I will search the database for the matching profile of this other senshi…and then I will have to confirm some details"

That summarized to her a full day of work and an intelligence gathering mission that she would have to collect more useful data. From that she hoped she would know what to do with the information and how best to achieve what they wanted. It would be a fulfilling day, just like this one had been.

* * *

Their brief few hours looking over Rei's assignment difficulties had been the cure to get Ami's mind off the troubles she was having, though its effect worried the resident shrine maiden. In the space of three hours, Rei had perhaps covered six hours of work at a pace that Ami kept to as she explained everything. She figured that this must've been what Ami herself must've used for when she had to cram for exams or when she was stressed, because by the second hour, Rei was reaching for the headache pills. Now they were taking a break for the night, and after rearranging her bedroom with the futon – which she had taken out of storage, aired out and cleaned – for her surprise guest; with that done, they now took the chance to bathe before they went to sleep. Giving the guest the first go gave Rei a chance to speak to the others while she waited.

"She's staying at your place?" Usagi asked on the other end of the phone

"Yes" Rei confirmed and elaborated "Ami and her mother had a bit of a fight last night and I think she wanted some space to think about thinks before confronting her again…"

"Do you know what it's about?" Usagi asked, only to check if Ami was being open with them

"From what I can tell…" Rei turned to look down the hallway at the corridor that led to the bathhouse "I guess her mother just overreacted at what happened last night…she said Ami was being irresponsible and reckless with herself"

"Not really comforting words" Usagi sighed "considering that she had just woken up from that other thing too…I can't imagine how upset she must've been"

"Ami certainly seemed that way when I met her…she tried to be angry, but I could see she was sadder than angry…and scared"

"Scared?" Usagi asked.

"The whole thing from before…" Rei hadn't thought too much about that "Judging by the words from this morning, she might be changing her opinion on her daughter…right to the point of…"

"…Rejection" Usagi finished the thought

The two were momentary without words to speak to each other and they both think deeply about the situation. Rejection was not a kind term to think about; it meant serious implications if it turned out that Ami's mother no longer had any faith in her daughter. How would Ami function with that on her shoulders?

"I honestly think they just need time to think this one over…" Rei said finally "both of them are smart…Ami and her mother will work it out and understanding eventually"

"I hope so…" Usagi worried "With this new enemy…it's just bad timing"

Rei nodded despite it being a telephone call "You pass on the message to Setsuna and everyone else…I'll take make sure nothing else happens to Ami"

"Alight" Usagi responded "Good night Rei"

Rei placed the phone back on its holder and walked back towards the bath; as though well timed; Ami was done and had just opened the door to leave. The timing it seemed worked out just perfectly.

"Thank you again for letting me go first" Ami spoke

"It's alright…I'll see you in my room"

After their brief run-in, Rei proceeded to bathe herself and at the same time in a sense spiritually cleanse – as the shrine maiden has long since come to think of it – her day's sins from her body with the pouring of hot water on her soft, well kept skin. It gave her time to think about what she and Usagi talked about, not that she had to think that much about it; Rei had been correct in assuming that the two Mizuno's needed to talk things over, just how and when was the question. After a bath that ended up to be slightly indulgent of herself; Rei returned to her room, feeling a lot fresher than before to speak to Ami – whom now was currently dressed in a night kimono gown from the temple's storage room – about the sleeping arrangements.

Despite her obligation as a shrine maiden and her sense of concern for Ami's faded, but still felt injury; her guest refused to steal her host's bed and resided herself to the floor to sleep. Defeated; Rei rested on her bed and looked down to Ami whom despite waking up at midday, felt exhausted. In a few minutes, the both were sound asleep.

* * *

'If I had known the meeting would be a lot longer…I would have taken my dinner along to eat'

She hadn't, and the two hour meeting had ended with all the doctors feeling exhausted and hungry. In a lecture classroom, with three administrators and the deputy admin leaders talking; they had in step by step detail, gone through everything they did last night and pointed out every single flaw in it. If the meeting was designed to improve morale around the hospital; it had not. Everyone walked away from the meeting in a state of distrust, not at themselves, but at the administration for not trusting them to do the job. The five casualties on their watch was a problem they knew, but it was not the job of paper-pushers to blame the doctors for their mistakes. When the meeting came to a close, Saeko hurried back down to her office to retrieve her bag and coat to leave, her mood had gone from worried to ashen concern.

Leaving the hospital grounds half an hour ago never felt so relieving and at the same time, so depressing. Her entire day had been one prolonged torture from all sides. When she had handed in her paperwork, it had surprised the interns – all of whom were treating her like a villain today for the missing paramedic bag – who had expected…hoped the pile would last the clinical doctor well into the night. Except for her fellow doctors on the senior level, the workplace for Saeko had become increasingly hostile throughout the day. It was as close to workplace bullying that Saeko had experienced in a long time, and in a professional environment like her hospital, one would expect the staff to work in unison rather than against each other. Not here anymore…their administrators were tough, and the clerks were downright ignorant.

And the worst part, the other doctors couldn't do anything, even the head of her department had tried, but he relayed to her just before the meeting that the human resources head had taken the advice of the chief staff intern head for recommending terms of dismissal for her actions last night with stealing the paramedic bag and for her performance as a whole during the emergency being the major draw card. That had capped her day of bad luck and now they were talking about sacking her. Added to her already troubled home life, Saeko didn't need another problem.

"I hope she wants to talk to now…" Saeko told herself as she walked into the apartment building's foyer.

Saeko really hadn't worked out her feelings on this matter either. Understandably more important concerns had overshadowed that problem, but it didn't mean the problems would go away so easily. Upstairs, Ami was probably…hopefully home now, waiting to talk to her mother and take a second crack at talking to her mother about the dangers involved in being a senshi. She would listen this time, like Hiroyoshi told her to do; Saeko would listen what she had to say before casting judgment. She had to if there was a chance of resolving this dilemma and like it or not, Saeko was about to confront her daughter; and the least she could do was apologize and try again to talk to her about their problems.

"I'm home" Saeko announced a few minutes later.

Nothing. Not even the sound of the air conditioner heating up the room – it was in fact quite cold inside – or any lights turned on. Saeko curious to the absence of reaction; cautiously stepped inside and turned on the lights. After exchanging her shoes for slippers, she turned the corner for the kitchen and saw that it was almost exactly like she had left it this morning with the addition of one bowl by the sink. The only thing to tell her that her daughter had woken up at least for the moment elated her nerves of the possibility that Ami was still asleep.

"Ami, are you awake?" Saeko asked again, thinking for a moment that she had not heard her mother the first time. Curious at the absent reaction – Ami would've heard her by now – she walked passed the kitchen and into the hallway down to her bedroom to confirm if Ami had in fact gone back to sleep. Her curiosity was answered at once by the fact that the door to Ami's room was left wide open. Easily she saw that Ami was not inside or sleeping.

"Where are you?" Saeko asked herself as she turned around and walked into the bathroom. Inside, the only sign that it had been occupied however was Ami's towel was on a different part of the rack, indicating that she had least had a shower.

Saeko closed the bathroom door and walked back out to the living room to look for clues. It was quite obvious now that she wasn't home by for how long had she not been home? Saeko walked into their living room to close the curtains she had opened this morning and turned on the air conditioner to start warming up the chilly room. Her next stop was back to the kitchen where she would check the most obvious source for that answer.

"Gone to friend's place- 12:25 to…" Saeko repeated the writing on the board 'Gone where? Which friend? And if she had gone out, how come she didn't write in an estimated return time?'

Even Saeko wrote in a return time; despite how inaccurate it was. So what made her daughter unsure of when she would be back? Saeko had pondered if it were a mistake, at least until she glanced up at the answering machine. The light was blinking as always; but for a moment felt very odd. She had called home – when she had learnt of the meeting, she automatically relayed it to her daughter – at fifteen past twelve; at least ten minutes before she left, how come she didn't pick up the phone, was it because she in the shower? No, even in the bathroom, with the tiles, you would have heard the phone, and if she had missed it, surely she would have noticed the blinking red light just before she had left.

Saeko walked over to the phone and pressed the button to play back her own messages.

"You have two messages…" the monotone voice informed her.

Saeko was surprised to learn that. Did that also mean Ami never heard the first one? Saeko turned to look around at the bowl she saw in the sink before. It hadn't there when she left, so yes; Ami had to have been in the kitchen at least once today. But why didn't she hear the messages? And why did she leave right after the second message? While she had been answering that brief question, Saeko had her ear to phone and had listened to the first message. When it finished, the second one started playing.

"Hey Ami, I guess you're not up yet…listen, the director wants to call us in for a meeting about last night later today, I'm going to have to come home a little later, one hour, I promise...it'll be one hour…and we can talk about your…I mean our problem…I'll see you soon"

It took Saeko a moment to realize something, if she hadn't heard the first message, but Ami had to have been wide awake – she had to be if Ami left ten minutes later – for the second message, which means that while she didn't pick it up, she would've probably heard the second message. It was possible, this phone did use its speaker when recording a message as additional time just in case the user wanted to know who was leaving a message. So why then didn't Ami pick up the phone if she knew it was her mother?

'…we can talk about your…I mean our problem…' Saeko repeated the last part to herself. In a moment of clarity, Saeko figured it out, but proceeded to ask herself the question anyway. Had Ami heard it and mistaken her slip of the tongue as something else?

Saeko placed the phone back on the holder and walked away to Ami's room, this time to look for clues to answer that question. Turning the light on, she noted that her curtains were still drawn shut and that everything looked like she hadn't been up very long before she had left. Ami was as tidy as her mother had trained her to be, but even this was weird. For a brief moment, Saeko paused to think of the possible reasons for Ami to go out in a hurry – Saeko briefly remembered the curtains in the living room were open – and not leave a return time. Nothing came to mind except…Saeko had almost assumed she had been out on senshi business – which made sense she supposed – and hadn't returned yet when she realized that Ami's backpack was gone. Ami didn't need her backpack for that, did she?

'So whatever she had to do' Saeko told herself 'she was planning to be out a while or go to a study session with her friends'

That's what she used that bag for, carrying study material. With that in mind, Saeko looked over her desk again to see what was missing. Upon reflection, what she was doing as very intrusive on her daughter's privacy, but soon this feeling faded away when she came to the realization that none of her books, or even her laptop had been taken. That made no sense; Ami didn't take her backpack without books inside, did she? The only other reasons she would take her bag was to go shopping for something, but if that was the case, wouldn't Ami be home by now? Saeko found herself searching for answers; but only stumbling into more questions; both of the immediate and of the more fundamental.

While she didn't know where her daughter was or why; it was dawning on Saeko that she was also coming across a lot of unknowns, just – outdated – educated guesses. The bag for example was a case in point. The only two reasons she had ever seen her daughter use that bag had come up with incorrect answers. She briefly ignored that and continued on; the minor thoughts about what she didn't know were not getting her closer to solving her original question.

'So she didn't take books, so what else would you need a bag for…' Saeko asked herself as she stood in the center of her daughter's room.

Saeko thought to herself and thought about everything she had noticed so far; the two or three most important clues in her search that back to her appeared; Ami had taken her bag, left in a hurry mere minutes after her second message and finally; Ami had not – which was very out of character for Ami, as far Saeko could tell – written down exacting details about where she went or when she was arriving home. Saeko wasn't a police detective; but was a pretty decent problem solver for her profession. Saeko pondered over the clues for fully five more minutes. What she kept coming back to was a violent reaction to the message; had that been it? Had she felt so angry at her own assumption that she had–

'She ran away?' Saeko thought to herself, frightened at that thought. It had been too much to fear for; had her message enraged Ami enough to make her want to leave? No…it couldn't have, could it? Saeko thought about it more, but every time she did, it came up the same. Ami had only one possible reason to leave and it had to be that reason only. Faced with the impossible choice, she tried to image for a moment what her daughter would have done, looking for an alternative explanation, some of which did not bear thinking of.

'Where would she have run to? Who would she go to? What is she thinking?' Saeko thought.

The realization was at the very least more disturbing – the word she applied for her daughter's big secret at the moment – than Ami's revelation a few nights ago. As Hiroyoshi had hinted to her before, she now realized it was true; she didn't know anything or have the slightest clue about her daughter.

* * *

Setsuna sighed as she surveyed the speakerphone she had just hung up. Usagi had called to relay the news and what she thought of the situation. Now everyone knew what was going on and it was not the least bit pleasing news. From their best guesses; Ami's mother was coming close to rejecting her daughter. It was the worst possible outcome that they could have imagined given the previously reversed position of Sailor Mercury's mother. For Setsuna however, the feeling was worse; the facts all stood in good stead that this was the result of error in her judgment. Not prepared at all for the wrathful emotions that her mother had unnecessarily pent up, Ami stood no chance explaining things; and had in turn beckoned back resentment as a form of self defense.

In one day, Setsuna's actions had caused the Mizuno family to rip in half with barely a thread keeping it together. Saeko's aggressive irrational mood and Ami's defensive resentment leading to running away were the two factors that had made the shock of Saeko's negative understanding of the senshi that much harder to correct.

"I knew we shouldn't have done this" Haruka cursed "it just causes us more troubles"

"This isn't a time for should haves and shouldn't haves" Setsuna spoke sternly

"Then what is Ami going to do?" Michiru said before thinking again "What are you going to do?"

Setsuna thought about that one. It was her fault wasn't it, even if these two wouldn't admit it. Was it her turn to step in and try resolving the matter? If so; how would she? Ami was with Rei, and she at least for the moment had someone to confer with about this. But what about her mother, who could she possibly consult on this matter? She was in the dark on everything related to the senshi, and with her daughter now distancing herself to prepare a better defense. Who could she talk to? That answer came easily enough and with that question answered, so Setsuna had one for her original question.

"Haruka, You and I are going for a drive tomorrow"

* * *

_Author's Commentary: One fairly extensive piece of research i did for this story was in describing the 'TMPS Database'. Rest assured, the database doesn't and couldn't exist in real life, thought Koseki and Jūminhyō are real databases and were examples I used in my research. Being something along the lines of what i do in real life, i felt it important to explain a feasible (but technically impossible for 1997) database on the scale which a lot of shows (like sailor moon did) seem to assume exists. I will admit that I am taking a lot of liberties in how it works and I'm willing to bet there is a fellow network technician out there banging his or her head on the screen right now, but in the long run, the key point was to explain how such a 'magic database' could exist._


	13. Chapter 12: Turning point

**Chapter 12: Turning point**

Dawn came hard for Ami. Even with the momentary denial that it was her imagination; over time her brain couldn't deny the changing color of the sky. Before her gazing eyes looking out the window; it evolved from pre-dawn black to a palette of purples and deep blues, eventually replacing the night sky entirely with faint orange as dawn approached them. The sight of the first light blue portion of the once night sky told Ami her denial had been defeated; she had been sleepless almost all night. She had been denied restful sleep and while it was a new day for everyone else, her old day was still in progress. Ami didn't need to be told why she hadn't slept, or the particular reasons why in technical or psychological terms; for her – like all the other times when the dawn came before she fell asleep – it was just hard to sleep with so many things on your mind; it just made the brain unable to shut down long enough to catch some rest.

For Ami; this had been her whole night. After a brief hour or two of blissful sleep; Ami had failed to keep her dreams free of her conscious thoughts. After a momentary struggle in her sleep, it had brought her back; first in a foggy half conscious state, but over the period of a few hours, the constant cycle of asking herself questions had drifted Ami from peaceful semi-sleep and to full coconsciousness. Her mind just couldn't rest until it had solved this problem – just like other complex problems in the past – and it didn't want to wait until dawn to answer it; disregard what Ami's conscious mind was telling it to do. When forcing herself to forget the problem didn't work; Ami gave up and tried to solve it as quickly as possible – a hopeless task already admitted – so she could go back to sleep. But after asking herself the question what felt like a thousand times; it seemed like the answer was non existent or a figment of imagination.

'How everything had gone so badly wrong? And now how she was going to fix it?'

Just how could she fix it had been the concern for most of the evening and most of the previous day. But like before; it had resulted in a mind muddled with questions that fell in and out of coherency and very few explanations to cover a wide variety of topics. How could Ami assure her mother of the safety and planning that her fellow senshi had in place was adequate? How could Ami explain the more crucial parts of the senshi without surprising or shocking her mother even more than now? More importantly, how could Ami restore the positive image her mother had before it had become such a low opinion of her intellect and maturity? They had all been valid questions, but Ami hadn't figured out an answer to any of them. Initially Ami thought in part it had been due to her own incompetence – a trait in her personality that always popped up its ugly head whenever inconvenient – but after tireless hours of wondering why she didn't see it, her mind still hadn't realized something. How could she fix something that Ami didn't know how it broke in the first place?

Ami had come to that realization at three in the morning. Behind every question, there had been a hidden question. Like a complex math problem; sometimes there were smaller questions that had to be answered first before the whole equation could be answered correctly. Behind the lines about the query involving safety and planning was a question about how did her mother get the idea it was reckless and dangerous. Behind the question about the crucial parts of the senshi was a thought on why did her mother react so badly in the first place. Finally and most importantly, what caused her mother to create such a low opinion of her intellect and maturity? The first question seemed easy to answer, but at the onset; how did Ami explain to her mother that the dangers that the Senshi faced were routine and to a degree – thanks in part because of their training – had been reduced? The second question was subsequent of the first, but how did one try to tackle answering the final question?

She couldn't figure it out, and as the first glinting rays of light started to penetrate the black curtain of the night sky, Ami had started to focus on that question alone. All of them ended up inevitably linked to one factor just like the ones she had initially asked had; how had her mother created such a bad opinion of her and the senshi? And for the first time in her sleepless night, the smart logical side of Ami had taken over and started to find an answer to this question. Faced with no answer in front of her, Ami had decided to – like she had worked out an hour or two previously – figure out how it got broken in the first place. And so as the light outside the window changed from night to morning; Ami backtracked her problem to the very beginning.

Ami's thought about everything that had led up to her being at her friend's place. It had started with that telephone call – where in hindsight she had to admit; one word alone could change the entire context of the message – which Ami had been hurt at the implied message in her mother's words. That admittedly bias interpretation of the message had been thanks in part to a late night argument that they had; an irrational exchange of words between two tired people, itself the result of her mother's pent up emotions after visiting the outer senshi house. At Setsuna's place; every single delusion that her mother had of the senshi had come up and had been quashed. Replacing the fantasies and delusions; her mother's impression had become tampered with the belief that the dangers exceeded their strengths and being a senshi was life threatening. But what had caused her to believe otherwise?

That Ami knew was a fundamental question, and subsequently like all fundamental questions, she was stuck in trying to answer for it. Ami tried her best to think of the reasons why her mother had woefully underestimated the realities of the senshi. But by the time she had come to the realization that she didn't know the answer, the first rays of sunlight had converted the hue of once night sky to morning. Woefully tired, Ami struggled to find it in herself to get out of her bed on the floor. Sleep deprivation didn't help with the encouragement, but something else did. After laying on her side for about an hour thinking about her problem; Ami finally rolled over and realized that she was alone in the room.

The surprise electrified her body enough to get the metaphorical motors running and forced Ami to raise her body to a sit upright. It felt like a lot of effort just to do that, but in a moment her energy would energize her once again as she confirmed her suspicions/

"Rei?"

Rei wasn't in her bed. The only sign of inhabitance was the sheets pulled back in a lazily neat way indicating her departure some time ago. With that established; Ami turned around slowly to find – yes, right there on the wall – her clock to get a read on the time. It was almost seven in the morning, time for breakfast; a source of energy that provided itself in a form not dependant on Ami's ability to empty her mind of thoughts. Slumped with tireless energy; Ami grabbed hold of the side of her friend's bed and used it to pull herself up to her feet. It felt like a hangover; a sense of disorientation that she associated after a late night at study.

It didn't take much walking, but soon enough Ami smelt the distinct smell of pancakes and toast; Rei was cooking a heavy breakfast it seemed. In a rather comical mirror of reality, Ami followed the scent like a pet did for its meal until it led her to the source of the smell.

"Good morning Rei" Ami yawned as she entered the kitchen

Behind the center table, Rei was dressed in her traditional attire of hakama and haori, with the contemporary addition of an apron on the top. The resident shrine maiden looked up and saw the exhausted look on her friend's face and didn't need to tell just how tired she felt.

"I take it you didn't get much sleep after all…" Rei replied worried

"You could tell?" Ami tried to hide it

"I could see you were awake when I got up for morning meditation" Rei elaborated "but you looked so deep in thought…I just didn't want to disturb you"

"I'm Sorry to have worried you…I just…" Ami tried to apologize

"You should've woken me up if you couldn't sleep" Rei advised before adding "Besides I couldn't get much sleep either…"

"I see…" Ami replied as she sat on one of the chairs at the table and as though by magic, a few moments later a plate was in front of her; she prayed her thanks and started to eat. A few moments later, Rei came back to the table with her plate and a pair of mugs of brew to wash down their breakfast with.

"So what kept you up?" Rei asked once she sat down

"What my mother is thinking…about me and the senshi" Ami spoke before chewing on a piece of toast, after swallowing she elaborated "I tried to think of how to fix the problem all night, but when I couldn't…I tried to work out how it all got broken in the first place"

Rei nodded as she sipped from her mug – the taste was just right for her – and took in carefully her friend's words as Ami evaluated the conclusions sought from her sleepless night. Slowly, Ami started explaining her process, first trying to find the 'hidden questions' and then backtracking the last few days to find the source of the problem. Ami was at times incoherent as her voice wavered from the lack of sleep, but she dutifully repeated parts she felt she murmured and explained her conclusions shortly thereafter. To Rei; it did make sense, which at least proved that even when sleep deprived, Ami's relentless search for answers was not hindered by irrational thought. When her friend finished explaining, she took a long look at the information before her just as Ami did the night before.

"So you think it's a misunderstanding?" Rei asked

"Yes…" Ami replied tiredly "but I don't know why…I remember mom the other day talking about the senshi like we were toys or anime heroines…she wasn't worried at all then"

"So? She got confused with our media image…" Rei replied "hasn't been the first time someone has done that"

"I know, and I told her the senshi were nothing like that and I would tell her the…" Ami replied "but then this happened and now…"

Rei pondered for a moment and examined her pancake; somehow hoping that the mixture of eggs, flour and water would somehow conjure an answer to this complex problem.

'What would make her mother get the wrong idea?'

It unfortunately didn't have the answers, but Rei wasn't as reliant on fortune of her surroundings to explain things for her as others were. At times like this; having a different perspective helped a lot more than one could appreciate; where as Ami's thinking was schooled in one way, Rei's thinking was schooled in another, and as a result, produced different outcomes. Rei thought about the situation herself again and did her own backtracking by her own version of events. Absent of the questions about the answering machine and the fight the night before, Rei worked on what events she witnessed herself.

According to Ami from a few days ago; her mother had a seriously flawed understanding of the senshi, which gave her the wrong overall impression of things. Promising to explain the true nature and correct this, Ami unfortunately never got around to it before the battle the other day because of the inconsistent schedules. That Rei realized was an important point; because when Ami got injured in a – that by their standards was unusual – battle; her mother still had nothing to go on except her daughter's word that it was not the same as the fictional depictions. That absence of explanation of course meant it left Ami's mother open to create her own conclusions. To Rei, it soon became apparent that it was here that things went wrong.

Faced with nothing else to go on, Ami's mother's first impression of what the senshi was really like was fogged by the unusual nature of their first real encounter. Unlike the first time she had encountered them – as she recalled from minako's retelling – Ami's mother was subconsciously aware of the words her daughter had said and placed those exact words against what she saw. And what did she see? Rather than seeing the senshi celebrate rhapsodic on their accomplishment that evening; Ami's mother saw the wounded get patched up while the others were resting in somber solitude as each endured a painful recovery. What an impression that made wasn't too hard to figure out; to an outside observer it would've made what they had done quite dangerous. It didn't take too much guess work to figure out the rest. To Rei, it wasn't much to imagine how such a biased impression that had formed would understandably cause her to be angry. That the subsequent events resulted in the misfortune of such anger being vented on Ami had become a problem of its own.

Rei looked up again and back to Ami. To her surprise, Ami's eyes were looking back at her, pensively waiting in silence for an opinion and maybe an answer to problem she had spent the night trying to solve. Rei didn't have an answer; but she could at least offer her opinion on the possible cause of her current dilemma.

"If you were to think about it" Rei started "I think she got the wrong idea when she visited setsuna's place"

"What do you mean?" Ami asked

Rei started to elaborate her theory. Rei wouldn't have called it conclusive, only because of her reserved opinion on calling things; but upon hearing it in spoken form; she could tell that Ami certainly – despite her fatigue – saw sense in it and remarkably improved her confidence in her findings.

"It certainly makes sense…but how do I reverse a misimpression like that one?"

"That…I don't know" Rei replied honestly as she took another sip from her mug "But I'm sure we can…"

The phone rang; at once both girls turned their head to the source of the noise in the hallway and confirmed the presence of the atonal noise. Disappointed at the interruption; Rei reluctantly got up and walked out the kitchen and into the hallway to where the phone was located. As Rei left the room, Ami picked up her mug off brew to drink her first sip; the taste was to say the least surprising.

"Hino Residence" Rei spoke dryly into the phone, for phone calls this early in the morning – seven was too early for any sort of business – formality was dropped an octave, this soon changed however when the other voice spoke.

"Good morning Rei" Setsuna replied calmly.

Rei was about to yell into the phone to ask why she had called so early in the morning, but Setsuna interrupted her before she could get the first syllable off.

"Don't let Ami know its me your talking to…she might get concerned"

Rei paused for a moment as her brain processed the sentence and decided to follow through on what was being said.

"Okay" Rei replied warily "What can I do for you?"

"Can you make sure Ami is distracted today?"

"Why?"

"Haruka and I are going to talk to Doctor Mizuno today"

Rei could've said any number of things, like how it would have been a very bad idea to stir the pot some more. But in a moment of pause and after a moment of thought; the resident shrine maiden saw what potential the idea might have. After a day of resolve and thinking, maybe Ami's mother might want to talk now; it couldn't hurt to try.

"We're going in at lunch time to today to see if we can find a solution to this mess" Setsuna explained on "and see if we can reverse some of the damage done in the process"

"Well…Ami and I have work to do around the temple today…so we're busy" Rei replied finally replied, adding to the implied conversation.

"I'll call you about the outcome when we get back"

"Well good luck then" Rei replied before adding "Bye"

"Bye" Setsuna voice spoke before being replaced with the hang-up tone.

Rei put down her receiver and thought for a moment before she walked back into the kitchen; there Ami greeted her with a peculiar look; for a number of reasons not just limited to the phone.

"Who was that?"

"It was…Minako" Rei quickly lied "She wanted to see what we were doing today and if we could come out"

Ami raised an eyebrow at that answer "At seven in the morning?"

Rei flinched at the flaw in her story and quickly went about patching up an excuse "Something about her cousins…"

"Oh…" Ami replied, accepting the explanation before moving onto her next concern "Rei…"

"Yes?"

"Just how strong did you make this coffee?" Ami asked with some surprise as she motioned to the cup of coffee she almost dropped. The taste alone was an electrifying feeling that could instantly wake anyone up. Ami certainly felt that way at the moment and had wondered how Rei had already gone through half a mug of the black brew.

"Its Shrine maidens' brew" Rei explained with much surprise "double the amount of beans, a little salt and it'll keep the sprits away and the maiden wide awake"

"Why did you give me a cup then?"

"Because it looked like you needed it…" Rei replied in a calm matter-of-factly tone before adding "And if your going to help me out today, you're going to need it"

Ami was surprised at the last part and almost asked her friend for a reason; but Rei saw the expression as it was forming and before Ami could ask her question Rei elaborated.

"I want you to help me out around the temple today" Rei calmly proposed before explaining her reason "you look like you need to clear your mind for a few hours…so take a rest from the problem solving for at least today"

Ami sat at her chair dumbfounded at the statement and took awhile to reply. Rei could've just as easily said Ami owed her at least that much for a bed for the night; but couldn't have gone that far with her friend. She didn't need to however, after another minute of contemplation; Ami had nodded approvingly at her friend's proposal. Glad at the acceptance by Ami of her plan; the two resumed to finish their breakfast before starting their day.

* * *

The symmetry was perfect. After years of being a doctor had affected Saeko's ability to be a mother, her failure to be a mother in the last day and a half was now in turn affecting her ability to be a doctor. Sitting at her desk; Saeko was just too weary to raise her head high enough to read the work she had laid out before her. She was just too exhausted; Saeko didn't get any sleep last night and her fatigue from the previous day only added to her inability to function as a professional. As a result of this stress induced insomnia; the staff interns had – Instead of giving her the daily charts for her rounds on the floor – restricted Saeko to her office to read and notarize the dozens of patient files that had still to be double checked before submission to the office upstairs. But tried as she had all morning; even this singular task was proving impossible. Saeko just couldn't look at a single character on the page before thinking about the greater problem on her mind.

'Where had she gone? Why did she run away? Why was she afraid to talk to me?' Saeko asked herself again

She couldn't answer that. Worse still, in the process of her panic; it had dawned on her that she couldn't say for certain anymore a single thing she knew about her daughter was fact. If felt like the in last four days or so, everything she had known about her Ami had changed or had been proven false. Everything; her hobbies, her favorite pastimes, her friends, her feelings, her thoughts, her secrets, where she would go when she was sad or angry…everything except psychical information and things that a quick examination of a form – like these ones in front of her – could answer for her. The resulting dilemma had kept her up late into night and into the early morning where Saeko had laid in bed asking those questions over and over. But in a repetitive cycle of doubt of her own knowledge; she couldn't think of one answer. It wasn't she didn't know anything at all – she certainly knew more than the average mother did – but last night all of what Saeko's previous confidence became clouded with hesitation.

'What else don't you know about Ami...?' Saeko seemed to accuse herself all night long 'you didn't know Ami was a Sailor senshi, you didn't know Ami got hurt all the time, you didn't know that she would run away, you didn't know where she would run too…you don't even know why your daughter is afraid to talk to you' Saeko then finally asked herself again 'What else don't I know?'

Many things it seemed. As the waning hours grew closer to dawn; Saeko wondered what else she didn't know, but the sleepless mother couldn't even take a guess at the grade point average that her daughter had for school. Saeko was sure she had been told before –what, every time Ami had an exam? – But she couldn't remember a single result that Ami had told her. Everything was a blur now; Saeko was sure that her Ami was an achiever at school, had every report card said that; but could she even remember what they said? And if she couldn't remember even what her teachers said, then what else did she have to go on to give her insight into her daughter's school life…besides what friends she had…might have. It was after this seemingly endless ponder, that Saeko tried to ask herself why she didn't know these things.

Was it her job; but could she really blame her work for this error in her ways? Wasn't it because she had to be here for the patients and hadn't that been the reason she had to skip out on so many occasions for years now? Was it a lie; had the Christmases in the patient wards really been necessary? And even with that fundamental reason, wasn't the lack of time spent with her daughter the price Saeko had paid to get to this position? Didn't the income, the comfortable apartment and her own financial independence as a single mother suppose to compensate her for the little time she spent with her family? And what about that word she had used to describe her need to be here; duty? Everything she had to do was in the interest of saving lives and healing patients; was this duty no less noble than any other socially respected profession? So if she couldn't fault her job for causing their feud, then what else had caused Ami to be so distant from her?

'Was it Ami's fault maybe?'

No, if there was one sure thing Saeko had at least held on to the past day; it was Ami wouldn't have intentionally kept her mother out her life on purpose. But in a moment of uncertainty; Saeko had wondered if perhaps the routine of keeping her senshi identify a secret created an unintentional spin-off effect on Ami. Had the fear of tipping off people about her big secret make Ami keep secrets about her life as a whole? The momentary doubt caused by the possibility made Saeko to ask even more questions. If that was true about Ami, then what about the others? Did they all share a paranoia for secrecy just like Ami, and how much did this affect her daughter's ability to disclose secrets? Wasn't that why there was resentment radiating from the eldest of them that one night when they were – because of circumstances at the battle – forced to admit to their secrets?

It was true that Saeko didn't really didn't need to know, but now that she did; couldn't they trust her to keep Ami's secret? And judging by the brief comments – from the girl who she seemed too ill-equipped to be Sailor Saturn – that same night, what where they so afraid of her finding out that superseded knowledge of their senshi powers? If that was the case, what possible secrets did they have that their secret powers didn't even stack up against? Trying to guess what that secret was would be impossible; it wasn't her incredible ability to heal – she had been allowed to see it in action – so whatever it must have been…was that even more important than her unbelievable powers? How much depth did the lives of the senshi have? The unknown only beckoned more fear of it and continued to deny Saeko sleep as night continued and brought her closer to dawn.

'So what do I know about my daughter?' Saeko breathed sullen as she asked had herself that question and thought about it again and again.

But instead of finding a logical conclusion, all she had done was ask herself a lot of questions without the confidence she needed to answer them. Upon reflection; the thoughts that had kept her all night had all been questions, assumptions and unknowns. Not once had she had an answer or a conclusive thought. What's more, Saeko knew all too well that this previous nights' thought process had been in vain because until her daughter returned home – or more correctly; if she returned home – none of the questions could be answered. And that, as Saeko told herself – upon seeing the first glint of sunlight from her window before – was the issue that concerned her the most. Above her workplace problems that borderlined harassment, above her mounting fears about her daughter's choice to be a senshi, even above the fact that the fear of uncertainty about her daughter. The absence of assurance that she would talk to her daughter again to resolve this problem they had stricken Saeko with doubts that she couldn't comprehend.

And because her inability to confidently guess where her daughter had gone, all Saeko could do – Instead of pursuing a resolution to this dilemma – was sit at her desk with this myriad of problems over her shoulders, attempting futilely at ignoring the problem long enough to focus on the paperwork beckoning to be filled. It just wasn't fair; instead of trying to get back what she had lost – her workplace respect, her daughter's trust and her confidence in those two – Saeko had found herself stuck with duties that she couldn't even do efficiently anymore. It was this sort of self despair at the situation that made Saeko wonder what else of her life could go wrong now; but it didn't take too my imagination to take a guess at that.

By admission of the interns she talked to this morning; the senior administration staff didn't even trust Saeko anymore to perform her duties. Such a negative judgment of character had affected Saeko greatly; her respect among the staff for one was greatly diminished. While the fellow senior doctors would understand the decision she had made; the junior residents and nurses would doubt her every word now and wonder aloud if she could do the rounds anymore, let alone be trusted with patients. It was all the signs of a workplace unable to see good in a person anymore; unable to trust, unable to respect, it all lead to one possible conclusion and that had been the subject of rumor for a day now.

A rumor of dismissal, which grew substance this morning when Saeko was told flatly denied her usual routine of tasks and restricted to ones that didn't involve patients – at least until she was cleared of any wrong doing – but that was a mere formality she knew. The only thing left now for her to do was to read reports and do laborious paperwork until they made their final decision; a decision which became more obvious in conclusion by the hour. In the space of two days, it seemed everything in her world had fallen over and the fear that the worst had yet to come only added nausea to her fatigued body.

* * *

Haruka drove the family car off the street and stopped at northern end foyer drop off point. After finding a free space to stop the car, Haruka stopped the car long enough to drop off her passenger. She hadn't liked the idea a whole lot, and had constantly warned of the possibility that it would backfire. But despite the warnings on the risk it placed on resolving this dilemma, Setsuna stepped out of the car.

"I'll join up with you later" Haruka yelled from the car "don't screw this one up before I get up there"

"I'll see you in a bit then" Setsuna replied quieter before turning her back to the car and Haruka.

After a brief walk up to the hospital foyer entrance – and a spot check to be sure her outfit was clean and presentable – Setsuna gracefully walked inside and up to the front counter to sign in. It didn't take long for her to get the attention of the male intern presently on watch here; she had dressed accordingly to ensure just this. Her exotic tan, fit and well portioned figure inside a conservative, but very well tailored ladies business suit radiated intimidation and maturity that made the young man – he had just finished college – briefly nervous. But if seduction is part attraction, the other part was a strong cunning.

"How may I help you madam"

"I'm Setsuna Meioh, I'm here to talk to a Doctor Saeko Mizuno" she announced in a clear cut, professional tone.

"What this in regards to?" the intern's tone changed at once. The name this visitor had mentioned didn't – in his opinion – deserve a respectful tone. Such respect was not awarded to a person whom, if the rumors were true, was pending dismissal.

Setsuna had caught the message in the tone of his voice and it didn't take too much thought to conclude that Saeko Mizuno was having more problems than just with Ami right now. With that considered, Setsuna continued on and felt that her intervention couldn't have come at a better time.

"I'm here to talk to Doctor Mizuno regarding legal matters" Setsuna spoke smoothly and looked at the jock intern with a serious face.

"You're a lawyer?" the intern asked, wondering what kind of trap he had just set off.

"Yes…I'm here on the behalf of a family friend of Doctor Mizuno, Mr. Takashi Hino...do have to speak of what office he represents?" Setsuna again explained seriously, when he remained silent, she continued on "Now can you please tell me where I might find her?"

* * *

Saeko reached for her coffee mug – this morning, she had neglected to add sugar, it was just one of those days she just needed it black – to her mouth and drank a goodly portion. She noted with displeasure that she was running out of coffee and would have to make another run to the machine, again while evading the looks some of the interns gave her while she filled up and returned to her office. It seemed that coffee right now was her only friend in the world, she was about to get another.

"Who is it?" Saeko responded to the sound of her door being knocked.

Saeko briefly wondered who it could be and briefly prayed for it to be Hiroyoshi – his guidance was something she needed right now – but it was not to be. The nurse, who was also Saeko's assistant – and unbeknownst probably the only junior staffer left who believed in her – opened the door and spoke from the doorway. Her face was one of confusion which turned to concern as she saw how Saeko looked; her expression of fatigue was not one that assured confidence very easily.

"You have a visitor"

"A visitor?" Saeko pondered "Who is it?"

"Setsuna Meioh …she says she is a lawyer here to discuss legal matters" the assistant elaborated, wondering if Doctor Mizuno would explain why she was meeting with one.

'Setsuna-sa…wait…Pluto?' Saeko suddenly made the connection, in an instant she stood up and then replied at once "Yes…of course…please send her in"

The nurse stood aside and conducted the 'lawyer' into the office. Setsuna appeared around the corner as if by magic and had almost left Saeko mistaking her for a real lawyer instead of someone she knew. Her appearance was far from the one she had expected – which had caused a brief panic – but upon seeing her face, Saeko recognized the distinct features that only one person she had seen shared.

"Doctor Mizuno" Setsuna replied "Good to see you again" as she extended her hand to shake the doctor's. Saeko didn't know what to make of the situation, but at least had the sense to treat this as it appeared to be. Setsuna she realized just now had a very uncanny ability to talk her way into just about anywhere it seemed.

When Setsuna sat down; the nurse nodded to her boss, prompting for instructions. Saeko saw her and reminded herself of the protocol for every other time she had to meet with outsiders.

"Would you like some coffee? Tea?" Saeko at once offered

"Tea, nothing added" Setsuna replied curtly

"Ms Hiiragi, can you please get a tea and a refill of coffee for me" Saeko ordered

"Yes Doctor" the assistant nodded and left the room, sure to close the door on the conversation which she didn't have to guess would be a private one.

When the door was closed; so did the play acting by Setsuna stop. Saeko had held back her restraint long enough and upon the dropping of formalities; instantly made the first question that came to mind the one Setsuna had correctly guessed would her gravest immediate concern.

"Where is Ami? Do you know where she went?"

Setsuna nodded "I do, she's staying at a friends place nearby…"

"Do you know why she…" Saeko asked before pausing, even in these surroundings, she didn't want to risk the word getting out that her daughter ran away.

"I'm not privy to all the details…but from what I've learnt, she wanted to take some time to work things out before talking to you…I think your phone messages had something to do with it"

Setsuna observed the color in Saeko's face return upon hearing that her daughter was safe, which; judging by the heavy bags under her eyes it had – Setsuna guessed correctly – kept her up all night worried. Setsuna's reason for being here wasn't to simply inform her of Ami's whereabouts – thought it did make breaking the ice easier – and so while this momentary relief returned some life into her host, she waited on before she could start with her real reason for being here. Setsuna was sure that the elder Mizuno would soon have new questions in her mind replacing the ones she had answered and today it Setsuna's mission was to answer them.

Saeko understandably however didn't know what to say straight away; learning where her daughter was and what her daughter was thinking had momentarily brought her mind to a lapse as she savored the best news she had heard all day. But when she finally come to from her joy, her mind started up again and replaced the assurance she had just received with – just as Setsuna predicted – a new set of questions.

"I see…" Saeko breathed before asking "do you know when Ami might be coming home…"

"I don't I'm sad to say…but as I said, Ami feels she needs to take some time to work things out before talking to you again…" Setsuna answered before adding "But that's not why I am here"

Saeko briefly realized that the news she had just told her could have been just as easily over the telephone; making her wonder what the real motivation was. But before Saeko had the chance to ask what Setsuna's real reason for coming to see her; she was interrupted by the sound of the door.

"Ms Meioh, Mrs Mizuno" the assistant entered the room with a cardboard holder with a Styrofoam cup containing tea and coffee respectively. The assistant had noticed as well that her boss, Mizuno-sensei had regained some color in her face since her brief errand; whoever this guest was had really brightened Saeko Mizuno's day up.

"Thank you again Ms Hiiragi" Saeko complemented her assistant

"Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Yes" Saeko looked to her guest before realizing this might be her only chance to talk to Setsuna, a chance that could be interrupted at any moment. "Can you please tell the senior doctor on duty that I have a meeting with a lawyer and to please not interrupt me until we're done?"

"Understood Doctor" the assistant nodded before exiting the room again, when the door closed, the conversation resumed.

"That was very smooth" Setsuna replied kindly

"Thank you" Saeko said; not quite sure if she should take that as a compliment. Once that was past here, she asked her original question "If didn't come here to talk about Ami, then why did you come here?"

Setsuna sighed before turning seriously "I came here to talk about you"

"I don't understand…" Saeko replied "Is this about what I said to Ami?"

"In short yes…" Setsuna started to speak "…but to describe it more accurately however; I'm here to work on the cause of the…misunderstanding you two had" she carefully worded, avoiding the word 'fight',

"So this is really about what Ami and I talked about" Saeko carefully worded her reply, feeling the imaginary negative pressure of guilt weighing her head down.

Setsuna simply nodded to confirm for Saeko.

Saeko turned her eyes down at her desk at hearing that. She had long since come to regret what she had said to Ami that night, and the last thing she wanted to do at a time like this was be confronted by one of her friends about it. Bracing herself for the coming storm that was about to start; Saeko looked up again to meet the gaze that her guest was giving her. She had expected a stern one marking disapproval at her mistake; but Saeko had been mistaken, and then surprised. Instead of seeing the expected – that she felt was deserved – anger; the look Setsuna's expression was far calmer and showed more concern than any sort of the expected aggression.

Setsuna likewise saw the response in her host's eyes. While far younger than Saeko Mizuno, Setsuna had become very skillful at the art of observing emotions thought the eyes; so refined was her skill that it would have made one really good psychologist or even a lawyer like she was pretending to be today. It was because of things like this that Setsuna could tell straight away that Saeko really didn't know how to maneuver from here. Even after mentioning – in admittedly clipped terms – that she was not here to be critical of her handling of the situation; the elder Mizuno was not sure if her guest was here to incriminate her or to assuage her concerns. Setsuna decided it was time to put those assurances to rest once and for all.

"I'm not here to blame you for what you said or what happened afterwards" Setsuna clearly stated to her host "without proper appreciation of the subject, anyone would have said what you did…"

This made the flare in Saeko's eyes change from worry to her own brand of concern. She just had to ask "But how come? I mean…"

Setsuna cut off her host "Because I was the one who told you to talk to Ami instead of me, for that I personally feel responsibly for letting this happen"

The admission of guilt caught the doctor off guard, but she briefly didn't know why Setsuna felt responsable; upon thinking about it for a minute, Saeko realized why. It had been her, as Sailor Pluto; who had told Saeko to go home and discuss this with her daughter instead of herself. But had Setsuna decided to take her questions and subsequently, Saeko's misdirected aggression; then maybe – probably very likely – It would've saved her from causing this present dilemma with her daughter.

"But even if you say that" Saeko started "…what I said….I really should have tried to listen to my daughter"

Despite Setsuna having just apologized for her error in judgment, it was Saeko who still felt she had made the larger error. Even if was this woman instead of her daughter; it still wouldn't have changed the fact that Saeko – as she had learnt from speaking to her associate the previous day – had made an error of her own in assuming that she knew better. As much as the anger at what she had seen had affected her judgment, Saeko still couldn't deny that she had failed to listen to her daughter when she tried to assuage her concerns and misimpressions. And the cost of doing so had – as she learnt from Setsuna – almost destroyed her daughter's faith in her.

Setsuna was surprised at Saeko's own admission of her error. She felt it her mission to admit to her role in this dilemma – that she had felt since learning of this the previous night – but she couldn't help but admire Saeko's own forthright honesty in admitting to have misunderstood her situation and her failure to listen to daughter. Some mothers denied making mistakes – and by all rights, Saeko Mizuno's irrational outburst couldn't be marked against her as a true mistake – but Setsuna learned at once that Saeko was not afraid to admit responsibility when it was due. It was a sign of accountability that this mother and doctor did not fake, and in Setsuna's eyes, made her all the more respectable.

"…From what I gather, it wouldn't have made much difference if you had talked me instead of your daughter" Setsuna replied kindly "I know you probably would've come to the same conclusions that you had formed"

"That's true" Saeko admitted before explaining "But unfortunately, that doesn't change the fact that it happened… and even after seeing it, I still don't understand a thing about my daughter's senshi powers"

Setsuna leaned back in her chair a bit to stretch her muscles, sitting like a professional wasn't something she had quite gotten use to yet. To her personnel satisfaction, Setsuna noted that without much hard work explaining, Saeko had already come to the same conclusion that she had the night before. When she leaned forward again, and began to speak.

"Which is why I'm here today" Setsuna said assuring her host "…to see if we can correct that misunderstanding"

"In other words…" Saeko asked "You want to help me understand better this senshi business better?"

"That's correct" Setsuna nodded approvingly

"Why?" Saeko simply asked

"For the benefit of resolving this dilemma between yourself and your daughter…I think you and I first need to correct some of the misimpressions you have about the senshi"

Saeko felt for a moment a tinge in her chest at hearing that, as though her heart had skipped a beat; Had she heard right? Was this the real reason why Setsuna had come all this way in person? In a moment of hesitation, her thoughts from the previous night had come up and swiftly denied the possibility. Didn't they distrust her? But repeating the words again in her mind again only made Saeko realized that she hadn't imagined it; Setsuna wasn't lying and in a In a moment of relief; Saeko found herself glad that she could now discuss sensitive topic this with someone…even if it wasn't her own daughter.

With that, Saeko started to think about her process; finding herself running into another unknown. It hadn't occurred to her until now, but she hadn't really worked out what she wanted to say and in what order. It wasn't a failure of intelligence or hindsight; Saeko just hadn't gotten to that stage yet. With a few short minutes of silence given to her by a very patient Setsuna, the clinical doctor revised her questions. The questions were numerous; why did they have to be in danger? Why it was the senshi's duty to fight these monsters? Why did Ami judge that the risks were acceptable? Eventually Saeko figured out her first question.

* * *

Sitting at her desk in the nurse's station; Motoko Hiiragi was enjoying a late lunch – and a fairly light day's work – while she waited to screen calls for her boss. The surprise meeting had prevented her going downstairs in the cafeteria with the others; leaving her with little choice but to have a vending machine purchased chicken sandwich at her desk while working on a crossword she had spread out over her work area. As she pondered at the word that would fill fifteen across, she glimpsed back down in the general direction of her boss's office and pondered about the meeting that Mizuno-sensei was having right now with that lawyer.

It wasn't hard to imagine the reason why she was meeting with one. The rumors had been petty consistent for a day now, and thanks in part to the staff meeting last night and this mornings' surprise visit from a lawyer for her Boss; Motoko didn't need to think too hard about the situation her boss was in, or at least the impression she had at the moment. Like the crowds that sat down in the cafeteria before – junior interns and doctors alike – her speculation today started to wonder on the consequences of what was apparently going on. Motoko was far too junior to have her own office with her name on the door; but it didn't mean she wasn't able to learn what was going on.

With plenty of free time thanks to Saeko Mizuno's confinement to her office; she had learnt from a fellow intern this morning, that the senior administrators were going to make an example of her if she proven of any wrong doing. Considering the strong words spoke at the staff meeting yesterday, and the rumors of her dismissal; it all seemed to link up well with the additional fact that Saeko was apparently talking to a lawyer about a pending legal matter. That in itself was enough evidence to suggest a lawsuit, but what about? Whom against whom? If the rumors were true; was Saeko Mizuno seriously going to sue the hospital if she was fired? If so; would the reputation of the administration and the hospital be tarnished in public?

The thought of what would happen boggled the young nurse but before she could come to a logical conclusion, someone walked up to her section of the nurse station.

"Hey Motoko"

"Welcome back..." Motoko replied "Enjoy your lunch?"

"Not really, I think they might have overcooked the chicken"

"Oh…" Motoko replied "you feeling alright?"

"I think so…I'll tell you if I get sick though" her fellow nurse looked over the top of the high desk ledge down at motoko's coffee mug "hey, I'm going to the coffee machine for a refill, you need a fresh cup?"

"Oh ah…" Motoko looked down at her mug, seeing it was empty "Sure, you know what to put in?"

"milk, 3 lumps of sugar?"

"2 lumps"

"Okay…" the nurse collected the mug "I'll be right back"

"Thanks"

That the nurse she just talked to was actually in fact still downstairs confided a bathroom cubical – and feeling quite ill from overcooked food – was something Motoko would never learn.

* * *

"Even with that sort of explanation…" Saeko replied "it's still hard for me to believe all of this…"

"It is hard to explain it I admit, but not a word of what I said is a lie" Setsuna calmly explained "there is no earthly explanation I can offer as to why fate chose your Ami to become a senshi, nor why we must be ready to face danger"

Saeko shook her head as she cupped her hands together briefly and rubbed her nose – she was certainly going to get a headache trying to understand this – with her two index fingers. When Saeko composed her mind for another bout of mind games; she looked up and tried again to understand this elaboration provided by her guest.

"I'm sorry" Saeko first apologized "I didn't mean I didn't believe you…it's just hard to comprehend"

"No offence taken" Setsuna replied "it does take a little getting use to, even amongst ourselves; we've all more than once asked why we were chosen instead of someone else"

The two of them hadn't been talking for very long about the subject; it had been half an hour at most. But Setsuna noted quietly, that it was at least a positive sign that Saeko hadn't given up trying to understand, just as she hadn't given up yet in explaining such a complicated subject. There was no textbook, no plan, no method, no way for her to know how to treat situations like this…so Setsuna had elected to tell the truth; which it seemed in hindsight, to offer the most promise judging by her host's reaction. But even with a policy of honesty in mind; Setsuna had come to the meeting obviously cautious about how to answer Saeko's questions. Even as she elaborated, Setsuna had wisely decided to omit references to human phenomena like reincarnation – there would be better times for such revelations in the future – and other simply frightening facets; in an earnest attempt to not create more negative connotations of the sailor senshi that she would have to explain.

And while Setsuna carefully balanced her words to not offend the paranoia of her host, Saeko was carefully battling a problem of her own. For her; the elaboration was very difficult to accept, not because she lacked the imagination or the wit to recognize it; but years of education and employment as a doctor had rooted a strong denial to the idea of fate. Fated to become a senshi? Fated to defend, not just her fellow senshi, but the human race a whole? Was that the television commercials talking or Setsuna's elaboration of the real thing? She couldn't tell. That Saeko had once romanticized these same ideals was for the moment insignificant. It had only severed to remind her of how naïve she had been before all this happened and how ashamed she felt of those thoughts when she had seen the hard reality – at least from her supposed misimpression – for the first time of becoming a girl with magical powers. It was hard to forget such things, harder still to recognize a fiction over a fact, more so when denial of fact only made the mind protest at the attempt at ignorance.

But a moment ago, Setsuna had just asked her to just that. In telling her that it was fate; telling that yes, the romanticized ideals were at least partially true; it had only complicated her conclusions and how she was suppose to feel about all this. But as much as she tried to deny it, what other explanation was there, Ami hadn't chosen it, she hadn't been selected by a mortal being; it had just been fate. But if it was fate – that singularity her professionalism inside constantly denied – and that fate had chosen her Ami to be apart of the senshi; it also meant it had chosen her Ami to risk her life for others. It was hard to accept herself, but just like setsuna had just explained at length; they were possibly the only people in the world who could deal with certain problems and that ultimately meant that fate has made it responsibility to deal with it; despite their own inner doubts.

"It's a matter of perspective…" Setsuna added "but its why there is a senshi in the first place...and subsequently why there are people have romanticized ideas about our reason for being here"

"I know that….but even after seeing and knowing about your exploits…" Saeko answered and started to speak "It just never occurred to me to possibly think of my Ami being able to apart of something like that…and being ready to risk her life for that"

It would have been unfair and probably insulting to blame her for thinking that way Setsuna thought. As well the need to be careful with choosing her words; Setsuna had come to this meeting prepared for the human factors of denying the impossible. In the case of Saeko, it was just the simple inability to associate her daughter's personality – one that she felt was very familiar with – to those additional qualities that was associated with a senshi. But it didn't mean that Saeko denied it, she just hadn't learned to accept it yet. But just as Saeko had acknowledgment Ami's senshi powers before; so would her acknowledgment of the additional risks and responsibilities that came with the powers.

"It is hard to accept that's true…more so since you are not a senshi as well" Setsuna answered honestly "…for us the mentality is bit different…"

"How do you deal with it then" Saeko asked curious "How you… all of you deal with the risks?"

"We use them as reminders to have to be careful" Setsuna explained "To try reduce the risk, we train in teamwork, practice combat skills and we learn carefully from our mistakes. As a result, our battles are always successful because of what we continue to learn about them"

"Then what happened at the police station…" Saeko asked bluntly again "I don't think that's hardly a victory"

That was a tough question Setsuna admitted to herself, further that it blemished what she had just said about their efforts to reduce the risk. But the implication of poor management of the battle – evident in Saeko's tine – deserved a strong reply and punitive examination of the battle had justified what she was about to say.

"We rescued people, removed the danger and saved lives; that's always our goal in achieving victory" Setsuna stated firmly, letting in a touch of anger as she spoke "As for our performance…had it not been for the training we had in dealing with critical injuries, I would be here today explaining to you instead why Ami isn't alive"

Saeko was understandably taken aback at the rebuttal; both at the tone of strong conviction in Setsuna's defense, and at the truth that her statement had.

"I'm apologize for thinking that of you and the others"

Setsuna sighed, willing to forgive the brief unguided comment; she continued on, again assuaging her host of any wrong doing.

"Its alright…As I said before, I understand your concern" Setsuna replied, her tone returned to the relaxed understanding "but let me assure you, we know the risks…and we make it a priority to reduce the risk as best we can...the rest is really up to how you want look at it"

"Then tell me" Saeko asked "how do you think I should?"

Before Setsuna could even attempt to answer that question, their meeting was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in" Saeko replied, then added once the opened the door "Motoko, what is it?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt your meeting" the nurse replied sincerely "but the intern office needs your copy of the floor's roster for next week"

"What? Why?" Saeko asked even as she reached over to that corner of the desk for the folder that contained the pages of next week's roster for everyone on duty.

"They lost their copy" the nurse simply answered "something about a computer glitch or something…"

"Typical…" Saeko grumbled before changing tone and asking "What about Ms Sakuraba's copy?"

"Nobody knows where she is right now" the nurse replied "and I don't want to mess up her folders looking for it"

Saeko shrugged an understanding nod and handed her copy – folder and all – over to the nurse. The nurse bowed apologetically for interrupting the meeting and made her exit as soon as possible. When the door closed, the two of them continued their conversation and Setsuna resumed thinking of an answer to the question she had been just asked.

* * *

"Well, looks like the right person" the nurse said to herself as she walked, this time towards the toilet that the person she had impersonated had run to several minutes ago. While passing the nurse office, again to their ignorance; the nurse flipped the manila folder open and scanned down the cover page. To her surprise; it was only a brief summary list of all the nurses and their respective times. Not seeing the name Mizuno on the list, she flipped to the next page. These timetables which were much larger and more detailed; concerned the doctors; the nurse flipped to the next, then the next and then five more times until she found the one she was after.

"Mizuno, Dr Saeko" the nurse read as she entered the bathroom.

To her relief, the bathroom was empty; save for one nurse suffering a minor bout of dysentery. It didn't matter that she was here; along with drugging her – and the other one that led her to Saeko Mizuno's assistant – with laxative, she had added an extra ingredient that would make their recollections foggy at best. Thanks in part to that; nobody would ever learn of what just happened. To this fake nurse, it was just one part of the art called social engineering; with a little research on any subject, and the right acting skills – of which she had – she was quite able to fool anyone to obtain almost everything. Just like the police station, it had been vital in completing her objective.

The clone of Motoko Hiiragi reached up and removed a gold lapel pen from her shirt pocket and in a second, the magic wore off to return herself to the form of a dark kingdom colonel. That accomplished; Vita next carefully examined the document, making certain that she had obtained her second of two objectives. Confirming Saeko Mizuno's identity and information on her had been the first part; obtaining her schedule for the next week had been the second part. Three hours of close observation followed by one hour of seduction and then less than five minutes to achieve her objective – before someone noticed the nurse she had drugged – all for one glimpse and one piece of paper, but it was worth every second.

Confirming the details were what she expected, she ripped the sheet clear of the staple and marked the rest of the document carefully, removing all evidence of the page ever existing. It was cleverly made easy by the absence of page numbers and a single staple holding everything together.

"Well, looks like I'm done here" Vita said as she placed the folder on the bench beside her in a manner that implied it had been dropped; when someone finally came in her and found Saeko's assistant, they would assume she left it there in her hurry to the toilet. She reached down for her teleportation watch and mused that upon her return, she would have to summon a meeting immediately; the sooner the better to have the opportunity to use this data and her idea of how to use it.

"Who's there?" the voice meekly replied from behind the cubical, her senses fading but her ears hearing a voice.

Her question was never answered, and in a moment she was again alone in the bathroom.

* * *

_Author's commentary: this was by far one of the hardest chapters to write and went under three revisions over a month before I was finally okay with it. Every scene got a rewrite, including the first one which was originally meant for the previous chapter but it eventually evolved from a midnight conversation into a breakfast conversation to fit into the context of this chapter. _

_The scene with Saeko and Setsuna was equally lamented over for weeks while I sorted out a very straightforward way to present their discussion (and disclosure) without going into too much detail or being too dramatic about it. In the end, the inclusion of Vita's parts had actually made the task of writing so much easier when I realized that the intercut would work so much better that a straight dialogue scene. _


	14. Chapter 13: First Strike

Chapter 13: First strike

It hadn't been hard to assemble the others for a meeting. Upon her return to the portal room that was set up in the basement; Vita went to the general to inform her that she was ready to present her findings and proposed strategy. It didn't take long for the general's summon to call the other colonels to the table and the meeting commenced straight away. After a brief update from the two colonels – ironically enough twins – assigned to maintaining the auto-troops and a security report from Denisa about local activity around the base, Vita commenced. She first focused on the summary of the information gathered and findings from it; without her mentor around, it was a tall order for Vita to explain to the others and have them believe her findings. But Vita tried her best and while the dubious looks from the other colonels were worrisome, the visual aids and presentation of the facts were made easy enough to understand. Soon enough; all of the colonels – Including Denisa – understood the information and its meaning.

Vita summarized how everything had been obtained; using the footage from the first battle as reference, she used the footage that they had stolen during the second battle to trace back the senshi to the point to when they transformed. When this was accomplished, Vita used the database they had stolen as well to identify the people had positively identified as Sailor senshi. The end result was not generally positive, but it did show results. Of the four senshi that had shown up at the first battle, two of them were identifiable in civilian form now, but only one of them had a name to match it. Vita explained that this would soon change once she returned to her research, but the finding of one senshi was important enough to report right away.

When nobody disputed the evidence, the now slightly confident Vita went on to explain her proposed plan to make use of this information. This she ran into some dispute.

"What kind of stupid plan is this?" Denisa slammed her fist on the table "Why are we not targeting the senshi?"

"Colonel Denisa" Vita addressed formally "according to my research, we have a golden opportunity to make our task so much easier…doing it this way will complicate any response the senshi might have in store"

"But what...why this plan…" Denisa replied angrily "why not a direct attack"

"I've considered all the options fully…" Vita explained before going on "this option wouldn't have been considered had we not seen one of them in the first place interact so closely with the senshi"

"So what is your plan specifically" the general spoke for the first time, he had left his colonels to bicker but now the brief moment they had to express their doubts had expired; it was time to move along with the meeting.

Vita explained again, this time detailing the minor things that she would require to make it all work. The plan turned out to be a pretty bold plan, despite her promise it would be simple to execute. Complicated as it was, the general saw at once the logic of the entire plan; but it however didn't elicited unanimous approval by all. The colonels, especially Denisa; felt the plan had all the hallmarks of an intelligence officer not quite aware of what was achievable. Even with the success of the police fort raid; Vita, like her late mentor didn't know anything about combat and her plan reflected such a weakness. Her plan relied too much on the element of surprise; which while good to have, was not something a veteran like herself came to rely upon. Cynical as that observation was, it was hard to deny that the plan was not without merit as Vita explained why she had selected this approach.

"Attacking her at home is a dangerous risk because she lives with a senshi and attacking her at her work is a technical impossibility given her movement around the building…by the time we do find her, the senshi will have arrived on the scene"

"So this is the only way to capture her?" the general repeated

"Yes…it requires the least amount of assets and can be pulled off easier than a direct assault on either the hospital or her home" Vita explained "if were to attack her at work, we would need the kind of assets we had for the raid on their local law enforcement stronghold…and even with we did, the chance of a senshi response time like the two we've had doesn't make the plan attractive.

"But how do we even know when she is transiting between her residence and her workplace…" one of the two armory colonels asked "if we attack at the wrong time, we'll have wasted assets in the process of distracting the senshi"

"That I have thought about as well, and was the subject of my mission today" Vita answered, then commenced explaining her undercover trip to the hospital. The reaction she received from the other colonels and even the general were ones she hadn't hoped to receive.

"That was extremely reckless" the general pronounced "Even if you did it before, it was because I gave approval through your teacher…why didn't you tell me of this"

"General…I did say this morning I would be heading out to confirm some facts" Vita explained, quite worried that she had ensued the wrath of the general "you approved…what methods I use shouldn't be a matter of concern"

The statement was just as bold as the plan the young colonel had proposed and every other colonel around the table felt that it had been a nail hammered into her own coffin. One did not question the general at all, not even for a second, not even if you were right. But despite the impending feeling that the colonel had stepped over the line, all of them were about to be awed in a way that would leave them furious.

"In future please remember to inform me of the nature of your mission" the general calmly delivered in a stern voice "We as a group need to know what precautions to take"

"Yes general" Vita took the warning meekly

Of all the colonels, Denisa was the most infuriated; what possible explanation could the general provide for meagerly dismissing such a blatant disregard for security. Even denisa knew by intelligence officer standards that this was a seriously mistake in hindsight. They never took so dangerous a risk, not even Azreal did something that foolish – at least she had never heard of such stories – so what possible motivation did the general have for forgiving Vita with just a stern warning? Even with her assurances and admittedly past success at the police fort...did the general merely forgive because she had succeeded in her mission? If so, just how bias a process was this?

It made Denisa seriously consider the general's mental state again; he had been so lenient with the dead colonel's own bold ideas and – at least how she saw it – extremely reckless expenditure of hardware and men. Azreal had sent good men to their deaths for nothing more important than to collect data for battles that he didn't know would be useful or not. And Vita was his student, she had been taught everything that Azreal knew; including it seemed flawed ideas about how to achieve victory. It made denisa almost regret killing the older man; all his death had done was leave room for this amateur to take his place. Bias and protected officers were things that Denisa despised and she had more than once dealt with people like them personally; was it time to consider such action again?

Taking out Azreal – even if it had been for different reasons – had been almost child's play; what with his absence of combat skills and nobody else witnessing his murder. But trying to take out Vita; was it worth the effort? It was a serious thought to consider as she continued to listen to the briefing.

"But how reliable is this information" another colonel asked.

His specialty in ambushes made him ponder the value of the information. He was also the only one of the colonels who had so far been persuaded by the plan; unlike his fellow colonels he was able to recognize the possible rewards this covert attack. But his optimism was cut short by his own experience that ambushes needed very solid evidence to make it work. Merely obtaining a roster didn't provide much guarantee for timing.

"The hospital schedule for staff is a fairly accurate model of when staff is suppose to be at their job…" Vita answered and then went on "accounting for delays…that is the possibility of overtime…and travel time between the residence and the hospital should give you a fairly approximant window of when and where we should intercept"

"Fairly approximant …" the colonel replied "That's one chance in three at best at the timing is right…and without an accurate understanding of her travel path home, we could very well miss her by planning our ambush on the wrong street"

"That is true…" Vita admitted "without knowing that, the best we can do is ambush her just outside her home, on a pathway we know has a very likely chance of her coming across it"

"Then we must determine that path for ourselves" the general announced, deciding now that the plan he had proposed would "Colonel, with that roster sheet, can you tell me how many windows of opportunity we have before it becomes useless information?"

"Including this evening?" Vita answered "we still have roughly three hours before this woman is suppose to head home, given an estimated travel time of one hour, four hours"

"Then we will make use of this evening as a test of the validity of this data" the general announced as he the plan was approved; and with his word, all the other colonels would fall into compliance. Denisa would just have to live with the unfair bias in opinion.

"Colonel Soyuz" the general directed to the colonel that had asked questions about the timing "prepare for a surveillance mission, you leave in two hours…Vita will brief you on what you need to know"

"Yes general" the ambush specialist replied at once

"Colonel Rin, Colonel Lin" the general directed his attention to the twin colonels "Prepare the auto-troops necessary for tomorrow's mission"

"Yes General" the twins replied at once

"That is all, you know what I want done" the general stood, followed a second later by the other colonels "Get to work"

The colonels with missions at once left their seats and walked out; Leaving just Vita and Denisa alone

"What about me?" Denisa asked at once, wondering why she had not been assigned a task

"Your particular skills are not needed yet, but I will need them soon" the general sternly remarked "But if you insist on doing something, assist the armory colonels"

Denisa felt – by her own feelings – insulted by the remarks and felt it was more than confirmation that the general had favored the others over her. What had she done to not earn this man's respect? At least she had the consolation of realizing that Vita had not been assigned a task either. But this solace was short lived.

"Yes General" Denisa nodded and made her exit, but slowed once she turned the corner, curious to hear what Vita would say; she didn't need to wait very long.

"And what about me?" Vita asked "I can just as easily do surveillance and I know the surroundings already"

"That is true, but I need your focus is on identifying the second senshi's name" the general ordered with a remarkably gentler tone "brief in Colonel Soyuz on what he needs to know and let the others focus on the job at hand"

"Yes General" Vita replied crisply and accepted her orders without further question.

From just beyond the door, she had heard the whole thing and now was walking away furiously before Vita caught her eavesdropping. Denisa hadn't been able to believe it before, but now she was having a hard time denying what she felt. How else could she see it any other way; the general was favoring his colonels like a chosen son. Azreal for his seniority, Vita for her relationship to such peerage, Soyuz for his vague expertise; the General didn't even have once ounce of realize that these people were all the wrong people for the goal that they wanted to achieve. To kill a Senshi; you just needed blades and the strength to penetrate death into your opponent. But even Soyuz, while a combat experienced veteran, was reluctant to fight in battles in which surprise was not an element of the plan. Such useless people only made the task they wanted to achieve harder and Denisa had long since come to one conclusion in dealing with such people.

She would have to wait for the right time, but for the good of the mission; the useless people had to go.

* * *

If Saeko could describe her day; it would have been 'a rollercoaster of events that seemed to change her emotions by the hour'. Thus far today; her emotion had driven deep into despair from her sleepless night's self-doubt, further still by the order by the administration to confine herself to her office. But when she felt that her day could sink no further, it had changed. It had all started with her surprise visit from Setsuna at midday – whom she had only met once before in senshi form – who had given her first relieving news about her daughter, and then worked for over an hour elaborating to her the finer details that she was suppose to know about her daughter's alter ego. After having conferred assurances of her daughter's well being and personal hope they could talk again, they had spent the latter half of the meeting critiquing her misimpressions and challenging the elder Mizuno's mind to overcome her fears and to believe in her daughter's conviction.

Even after her timely departure, Setsuna had left her with a challenge to find in herself a means to deal with her insecurities; a challenge that Saeko at once tried to meet. But after only half an hour, her search for an answer to that question was put aside her next surprise of the day. Two of her nurses; including her own assistant, were found passed out in two different bathroom cubicles, having apparently suffered dehydration as a result of their dysentery. The extreme nature of the cases prompted her recall to active work as Saeko – tired and thanks to the coffee, a bit irritable – went to work treating her own staff members. At first the interns were shocked to hear of this occurrence at first; but after a strong few words from both Saeko and the Ryosuke about being called exaggerators by a repetitively denying intern; the medical staff at once spread word throughout the hospital of the fears of a food contamination.

The resulting chaos had occupied the next three hours of her afternoon; just getting the approval to commence contamination testing procedures alone had taken an hour, time which only pushed back their reaction time to do anything. When they finally could, every doctor on call was ordered in at once; the patient capacity was barely at a third capacity, but including staff that ate at the cafeteria today, it still meant a lot of people to be tested. The insuring activity that resulted insured that Saeko would be going home late tonight; not that it mattered since Ami wasn't likely to be home anytime soon according to Setsuna. But just in case, like she had done before the previous day, and every other time; Saeko picked up the phone and called home.

"Hey…if your home Ami…I'm just calling to say that I'm going to be late again…we've apparently got some sort of contamination and we're all going to have to test everyone before we can go home…" Saeko spoke before adding "I hope to see you soon"

She put down the phone and just looked at it for a few minutes. Would she hear that message? From what setsuna had implied, probably not. Ami was certainly going to take another night before she considered coming back home. It wasn't a very big concern Saeko admitted to herself; just as setsuna reminded her of Ami's progress in finding herself the courage to confront her mother again; so did she still have to find it in herself to at least accept the reality that she was presently against. Before she could return to thinking about that however, that thought process was interrupted by a knock on her office door.

"Hey, Saeko"

"Hiro" Saeko spoke without having to look; she knew the distinct voice pretty well enough

Standing there in overcoat and just fresh out of the cold afternoon air, Hiroyoshi saw the back of her fellow doctor hunched over the table phone. He didn't need to merit a guess that she had just messaged home some more bad news.

"What's going on?" Hiroyoshi asked "my pager went off saying there is an emergency, but everyone is getting sterilizer kits out"

It was time to put home life aside again; at the moment duty was calling. If her daughter wasn't likely to be home than she really had nothing to worry about did she? It wasn't like there was going be additional repercussions from not making it home on time. Putting her worries about her daughter in a mental box for now; Saeko composed her and turned to face her fellow doctor. Patients had to be tested, and so did the staff. At once she started walking to the door and back to her work.

"Alright, follow me, I'll brief you in" Saeko motioned to follow her back to the nurse station "Two nurses, Hiiragi and Sakuraba came down with a serious case of diarrhea, we discovered the two hours ago unconscious of the ladies room here, and the one downstairs in the cafeteria…they cant remember what might have caused it"

"Amnesia?"

"No, just unable to remember…granted they did pass out as well" Saeko said as she and Hiroyoshi turned the corner "Throw in the fever they both have now and we've got…"

"Food poisoning?" Hiroyoshi guessed correctly

"…Hospital staff is checking all the patients now and we're testing all the staff who has eaten lunch today…" Saeko continued her explanation knowing they were on the same page now

"How the kitchen staff mess that one up?" Hiroyoshi asked in surprise

"We don't know" Saeko said "but whatever it is, it didn't stop at just my two nurses, apparently one of the junior doctors up in children's ward has been having stomach problems as well…nothing like the Sakuraba-san and Hiiragi-san"

"The administrators?" Hiroyoshi asked the obvious question. Three cases meant contamination for sure

"Took an hour to sell it to them but they finally bit the bullet" Saeko went on "cafeteria is shut down for now"

"but since we're so short staffed at the moment…"

"I get the picture" Hiroyoshi spoke "so you just need me to keep the store front open?"

"At least until we finish testing all the staff on duty" Saeko replied before yawning

This uncharacteristic motion of Saeko stopped the other doctor short for a moment and it didn't take too much to tempt him to ask "You get any sleep last night?

"Afraid not…I was hoping to get of work on time…ten minutes ago, but…"

Neither tried to answer that question, further explanation was not necessary; it was just her misfortune that prevented her from going home now. The two doctors entered the next hallway and into the ward that they had charge off and got to work.

* * *

Evening was setting in around the city and so was the cold chilly air that came with the December weather. In homes all along the street; families of various types were preparing for their evening meal, to watch the prime time edition of the news, to resume studying for exams, or any matter of activities that prying eyes didn't see. Despite their different activities, all of them had one thing universally in common; and that was after the sun went down, their attention of the outside became a void. It wasn't really because of ignorance; it was just instinct. People only looked out their windows when it was light because then you could see something, but after nightfall, windows became useless parts of the wall. Worse in some cases, they became liabilities because in daytime, it was harder to see inside; prompting the need for heavy curtains to block the window's view of the street.

It was because of this and other factors that nobody really paid attention to what happened outside their home after hours. With the exception of those walking to and from work on the street itself; it was as if everyone forgot the street existed. So when a suspicious looking man walked up the street and then sat down at a bench, nobody would even have questioned his presence, let alone know he was there in the first place.

"These streets offer few paths for her to travel too and from…" Colonel Soyuz noted his first impression of the area. Always a professional, he had taken the time to get himself familiar with the area between the train station and the apartment block Vita had told him was the home of Sailor Mercury and her mother. The building that they lived in was unimpressive, nor were the surroundings. The area was compact and allowed for no open spaces where he could view from a distance. Even from the street outside the apartment itself; it was only like large alleyway that barely had room for a car. Not enough distance to observe without notice.

Sitting at the bench from across the narrow street, he looked up and around at the roofs; briefly wondering if maybe he could observe from atop there; it did temp a better view. But to his dismay, all the roofs were sloped with tiles; landing on one of them might cause noise that the occupants would call attention to. Worse; if that senshi was home, surely that sort of attention would give away his covert surveillance of the area. He just had to be smart; Vita had told him if he did nothing suspicious, then nobody would be concerned about his presence. Just what defined suspicious was something vaguely defined.

Colonel Soyuz stood again and decided that if he would have to look around some more for a covert, possibly darkened place that he could see his target come home. He again pondered at the idea to walk back to the station and just follow his subject home; but had Vita had sternly warned him against that; even in this sort of society; there was such a thing as stalking. He would just have to be a lot smarter than that; he couldn't use magic, he couldn't use trailing and he couldn't observe from an unusual place. All he had to do was hide as if it were just like an ambush.

"This might…" he thought on reflection "…be a interesting challenge"

* * *

As Rei promised; the day had turned out to be a very full one. With the additional help that came with Ami, the resident shrine maiden had made an earnest – and some would say unreasonable advantage – use of the extra help to get as much work done around the temple as possible. Starting right after breakfast; Rei outfitted Ami with a set of robes and put her to work. After a brief instruction on everything Ami had to do, the two of them had gotten to work making the most of the tag-team effort today. The duties were evenly divided; Rei did the more complicated tasks like cleaning delicate ornaments and temple itself, while Ami had gotten to work with the less complicated tasks like taking the spare futons – that Rei was suppose to clean the previous day – and air them out.

After lunch, they both worked on the household laundry with amazing speed so they could take a brief nap – even shrine maiden brew couldn't completely defeat fatigue – while it dried. After putting the clothes away, the two proceeded to make a genuine effort to clean the Hino residence before dinner time, which by the end of the day; looked in better shape that Rei could remember in recent times. The floorboards were clean, the beds made, the dishes cleaned and stacked and the laundry sorted. The combined effort of the two hardworking girls had even created enough time to go down to the store to buy the groceries for the next week; a task that Rei had – she didn't want to say it was Ami's fault because – written off as a task she would have to do tomorrow.

The general result was amazing; working alone Rei knew, it would've taken on her own three full days to get it all done, and even then; she probably wouldn't have gotten around to the more complex tasks like the door she had fixed and general maintenance of the grounds that came with running this shrine. It was also very exhausting work to do alone; but Ami somehow made the tiresome part go away as they both worked together towards the same goal. It had been worth it; Minako and Usagi would probably not see the value in it – they didn't know housework quite like she did – but Rei could tell all day the effect all this hard work had on distracting Ami from her thoughts.

She hadn't quite been able to stop thinking about her problems altogether, but the work did offer a bit of a chance to create perspective as she thought less about it. But even after her nap – one that Ami really did need – she had looked a whole lot better off; despite the wearily and lethargic look under her eyes, telling Rei volumes about how tired she felt. Even walking back to the temple now with a pair of grocery bags to carry; Ami and Rei were both feeling the strain of such a long day and were looking forward to a hot meal, a hot bath and a warm bed.

The shopping trip had been a unique experience for both of them; typically Rei changed into casual clothing when she left the grounds, but Ami had ended up feeling so comfortable with the novelty of wearing her hakama and haori that she didn't mind going out dressed in it. That Rei argued wasn't so bad a thing and she remained in her own outfit, but had at least the common sense to change her shoes – and make Ami change hers – to something more appropriate for the street. Going with another dressed the same it turned out made Rei feel less self-conscious and it even proved in the end to be something of a novelty for her.

"What are you thinking about?" Rei asked with a relaxingly tone

Ami snapped herself out of her daze when she heard Rei's voice

"Same as before I guess" Ami replied with some embarrassment, despite her promise to drop the subject for the day, she had failed to do so completely "still…I guess I needed that break from it"

Rei couldn't blame her for thinking about things like that; the day was over and the work was done, absent those things Ami's mind returned to its cycle of thoughts about her current problem.

"See what did I tell you…" Rei said with a forgiving tone "A little housework to clear the mind never hurt anyone"

"A little…we cleaned the whole temple!" Ami said with some amusement "I'm surprised we even got as much done as we did"

The two girls had a light chuckle as the continued their long walk up the final third of steps. For Rei it was a positive sign; hearing Ami laughing again was a measure of how much relief her friend needed from her cycle of doubt. For her; she could say for sure now that every ounce of energy they had poured into work had paid off for Ami. By the time they had stopped chuckling, they had reached the top.

"Home sweet home" Rei mused as she and Ami proceeded to follow the familiar route, across the courtyard and around to the side and into the entryway that led to the residential part of the temple.

Careful to not mess up the floors they had buffed every inch of; Rei traded in her 'sandies' for her regular pair of slippers and Ami exchange her regular shoes again for the pair that guests used to walk around the house. That part of their routine done, the two proceeded to the kitchen where started to stow away their groceries before they considered dinner. Now with the simple mindless task of passing the various objects to Rei who knew where they went, Ami spent the time to think about her dilemma again. Her thought process today had pretty much been like that; whenever she had a rest period or a moment during a mindless chore; Ami took the time to think about her situation again and wonder about how she would solve it.

'How to reverse a misimpression like the one her mother had seen' Ami had asked herself dozens of times.

All day she had challenged herself with hypothetical ways in dealing with such a problem. It was simple enough; Ami fairly knew her mother's personality enough to hazard a guess at how she would react to certain things and all she had to do was apply that to a possible way she could explain things to her mother. But it wasn't as simple as she had envisioned; even with knowing the vague eccentricities of her own mother, self-doubt had made her hesitate at a conclusive answer. So while Rei and herself had toiled away; every spare moment she got to rest she took to think about that question again.

"Still thinking about it aren't you?" Rei asked suddenly as she put the second bottle of milk in the fridge

"Wha…what?" Ami said as she shook herself out of a daze again.

"Thought so…" Rei replied as she took from her friend hands the jug of orange juice that she had acquired "your eyes always glaze over when you're in deep thought"

"I'm sorry…" Ami started to apologize

Rei shrugged off the apology and continued to talk "So you find a solution yet?"

"Not really" Ami replied with meek honestly "Every idea I keep stonewalling with, it sounds like a good approach, but then I have to account for my mother's reaction"

Rei thought about Ami's reasoning as she turned around to pull the vegetable crisper out of the fridge. Sure it was a sound point, but surely someone as smart as Ami could come up with a good idea or two by now. Then again Rei admitted to herself as she lugged the plastic box onto the table; answering the question wasn't quite the same as figuring what the question was in the first place.

"What approaches have you tried?" Rei asked as she took the shopping bag with the onions and leeks and started arranging them in the crisper box.

"Well I keep trying to figure out how to start…and then get the whole misunderstanding out of the way…but then I keep asking myself;" Ami motioned with her hands "What misunderstanding, everything she saw was real"

Rei pondered that comment for a moment and then resumed looking for the other vegetables she had bought to add to the crisper. So it wasn't so much knowing what to say, it was so much how to say it; which would prove difficult. In practice Rei knew, it was easily to say that she knew the risks to a fellow senshi than it was to a complete outsider. In the case of the senshi, not accepting the risk was considered a failure of the person to be as brave as the others. It was part peer-pressure or part trust, it depended on how you looked at it. But to a complete outside like ami's mother, how did one explain such a thing? It wasn't easy both of them knew.

"Well, I mean she has to listen to right?" Rei explained "Either way you two need to talk"

"I know that" Ami said as she handed over the bag of tomatoes for Rei to put away "But I want to know what to say before I confront her"

"I guess I can't fault that logic" Rei replied as she put the lit back on the crisper and returned it to its place in the refrigerator. She slid it back into its home and after dealing with a little friction thanks to the tricky way the thing was inserted; Rei gentled slammed the fridge door shut. She leaned back upright and turned to her guest who was already starting to organize the ingredients for dinner.

"It's pretty hard to work out the right pitch" Ami admitted went to open the bag for the pasta they planned to have tonight

"I'll let you what, why don't we try work out a solution together then" Rei spoke as stretched her back from leaning over for a little bit too long.

"Okay…" Ami replied at once, she had been hoping for that. After helping her solve what felt like an unsolvable problem this morning; Ami recognized how helpful it was to get a second mind thinking about the subject.

"So how…" Rei started to speak, but was interrupted by the atonal noise of the phone.

It was funny how well timed such calls could be when someone had something important to say or do; it was almost as if it were perfectly calculated to happen at the most awkward moment. Rei turned to Ami to see that she had already accepted the interruption and was fitting the pot with water

"Can you start that for me…I'll just take this?"

"I know…" Ami replied lightly with a smile "Hurry up before it hangs up"

Rei turned and exited the kitchen with a light jog and ran the four or five long steps it took to get to the phone. On the tenth ring Rei picked the phone up and responded. Just like in the morning, traditional business hours were over and the formality that the resident shrine maiden adopted was just as casual as before.

"Hino Residence"

"Good to hear from you…" Setsuna spoke calmly "I tried the phone before but nobody picked up"

"I'm sorry…" Rei trailed off wondering if this morning's rule to avoid mentioning her name was in effect. Pretending it was she continued "We went to the shops a little while ago to buy groceries"

"I see…" Setsuna replied before asking "how is she doing?"

"A lot better…we're just making dinner now" Rei answered

On the other end, Setsuna briefly wondered why Rei was answering so cryptically. Taking a few moments to recall their previous conversation this morning; Setsuna added with some reluctance,

"You can mention who it is you're talking to now; the meeting as it is has been pulled off…now how is Ami doing?"

Knowing with some reprimand what she could say now, Rei continued on "Ami is doing fine, I had her help me around the house today and I think she is doing a lot better for it"

"That's a pretty distinct way of clearing the mind" Setsuna noted with humor before changing subject "Did she get any new ideas from it so far?"

"Well, we worked out this morning that we'd have to explain things to her mother better….and we were actually working on how to explain when you called us" Rei said with some relaxed honesty "But we're running into a few hurdles"

On the other end; Setsuna couldn't help but admire Ami's own effort at coming to the same conclusion she had and trying to resolve the situation. It only made the news she was about to deliver.

"Well, I've just made that task a little easier" Setsuna started and then went on the elaborate "The meeting we had gone better than expected"

"So what do I tell her?"

"I wouldn't mention the meeting just yet…" Setsuna explained "but just tell Ami that all she really needs to do now is tell the truth and her mother will listen"

"That's good to hear" Rei responded before asking in curiosity "Just how much did you fix?"

"Enough…" Setsuna answered "Doctor Mizuno has her doubts, but I would hazard a guess by tomorrow evening she will have sorted her feelings out about the subject"

"I guess Ami owes you…" Rei spoke softly

"She owes me nothing…" Setsuna said sternly "Just make sure she is ready to confront her mother by tomorrow"

"Understood" Rei replied as though being ordered "Well, I'll talk to you later, I have to make dinner"

"Say hello to Ami for me" Setsuna said with a sigh "Goodbye Rei"

"Goodbye Setsuna"

Rei placed the phone back on the holder and took a moment to think about what had just happened. So Setsuna had gone to talk to Mizuno-sensei; and somehow – Rei couldn't fathom a guess how – managed to reverse the misimpression in a way that left Ami's task of explaining things a lot easier. It was an awkward moment in Rei's mind, the feeling of partially lying to Ami wasn't one she felt comfortable with; but the moment passed in short order. After composing herself; Rei entered the kitchen again to confront Ami and tell her the good news she couldn't tell her.

"Who was that?" Ami asked, as she focused her eyes on the pot.

"Setsuna" Rei replied as she entered the kitchen area "she just wanted to see how you're doing"

"I see…" Ami said as she stepped aside to let Rei take over "Did you tell her what we were doing?"

"I did…" Rei replied and after thinking about her reply for a second added "her advice was to just remember to tell the truth"

"Tell the truth?"

"That's what she said" Rei repeated as she turned to the fridge to get started on the mushroom sauce that would go with their spaghetti and home made garlic bread.

"But without a way of explaining everything the right way…"

"Well then that's still the job for us tonight" Rei replied "just think of what she said as a gentle reminder…"

Ami nodded sagely as she returned her focus to the slowly boiling pot and resumed stiring the pot every few minutes to let everything mix right. Behind her, Rei was getting out the unsliced bread and cutting two thick pieces to make their home-made sliced bread. It was at this that Ami suddenly wondered about something that she seemed would have been obvious to her the moment they walked in the door this afternoon.

"Where is your grandfather?" Ami asked "I have seen him around all day"

"Grandfather?" Rei asked before wondering that himself "I'm sure he…"

Confused herself; Rei put down the knife and left the kitchen area for a second and walked up to the opposite side of the adjoining meals room. There for all to see was a large whiteboard with markings for herself, grandfather Hino and Yūichirō. Ami at once wondered how she could have possibly missed that after all the times she had been to Rei's house. The board was drawn up more intricately with times and responsibilities for the entire week; far more detail than compared to her and her mother's own board which just told them where and when for the day. On the board, Rei had her chores listed for the week – all of which she had done today – and she dutifully updated the board to reflect as such. In the next column that was for Yūichirō; there was a line that extended from Sunday to Saturday in and the words 'off for a white Christmas! Back 3-jan-98' scribbled down the length of the wall.

"Looks like he's downtown at a shrine meeting" Rei explained and sighed "he'll probably be staying overnight if he isn't home now…"

Rei knew about the meetings and why they were happening. Because of the complexities and of the problems that the Shinto shrines faced in this day and age; mainly with their growing decline in visitations around the lull period during holidays and the ever annoying demand from developers for shrines to make way for things like housing complexes or commercial lots. Trying to find a way to protect themselves; many of the inner-city temples had banned together to support each other as society became less interested in the shrines that dotted the districts. It was a noble reason as any, but as much of the community had praised; but Rei knew better. For the most part, it was just as the organization said it was, but the meetings were not entirely serious affairs. As she had learnt from going to one such meeting; it had – in her opinion – really been about old men like her grandfather getting together and sharing funny stories about their local shrines and later going out to have fun.

"I wouldn't worry about making him dinner…" Rei said with some depressed feeling

"Okay…" Ami said as she wondered why Rei was so letdown by that news. Then she asked her question "Rei, when did you get that whiteboard?"

"I think…a year ago, why?" Rei replied "Grandfather got one to replace the old pinup board we use to have…"

"Just curious…" Ami replied "I just didn't know you had one as well"

Rei walked back across the room and back to what she had left on the bench to do. As she wrapped up the bread and put it back in the hamper box, Rei wondered why that had stuck Ami as curious. After thinking about it, she figured out the reason. Every time she had come home with Ami; her friend's first instinct was to write her present status on the board. Usually on the board as Rei recalled; Ami would write in where she had been and what time she had left and returned. It was in a sense a lot simpler system than the one that her family used; but then again, Ami's apartment wasn't as complex as her home in a temple. Rei wondered about it as she continued to cook. Every time, that was the first thing Ami did; save the times – as Rei remember more – that she checked that phone in the kitchen for messages first. It was like a routine almost, a distinct daily tradition that both Mizuno's did.

It felt strange to Rei that such a board would be entrusted with such vital communications between two people who rarely saw each other. But then again; how else could they confer messages apart from the way Ami's mother did on the answering machine.

"Well I guess we have a lot to think about tonight" Rei said to herself

"What?" Ami said as she turned from the stove

"Figure out how to tell the truth" Rei replied

* * *

"Well?" Haruka asked without little patience

"The problem has been resolved" Setsuna replied before she sipped her tea "I think there is going to a long road to recovery after they make amends…but it wont end up in a full rejection"

"You hope" Haruka replied as she reached for the teapot

The two of them were sitting alone around the family table alone with their thoughts. They were also the only ones home at the moment; as Michiru and Hotaru – disappointed for their respective reasons at their cancelled plans to head to Hokkaido – had gone out to do other things while Setsuna and Haruka were off on their important task of the day. They would be home soon; just late enough in the day to avoid dinner and only stay up long enough to hear that their mission today had been carried off successfully. It was important they both knew and that motivation alone was what kept the too at the table, sipping tea and pondering about the actions of the day. Both hoped that the situation with the Mizuno's would heal; but personalities differed in their reasons.

For Setsuna it was the atonement of the failure to prevent the disaster in the first place and the hope that the two hadn't quite gone to the point of separation. For brief portions of the previous evening, she too had been sleepless wondering about the possible ramifications that failure to fix the gap between mother and daughter could have. Had she not intervened; would it have led to Ami Mizuno being rejected? And what morale deflating that would have created for the others as they had to find a place to house a homeless senshi?

For Haruka it was a far more honest hope that with dilemma of the Mizuno family put to rest; they could restore all of their focus on the enemy that had indirectly caused this problem in the first place. It wasn't that Haruka didn't care one way or the other about how it turned out but the attention focused on restoring this singular relationship had taxed her time and patience. There was a genuine threat out there at the moment and it wasn't timid or even reluctant towards avoid killing people; the most recent battle was clear evidence of that.

"You need to stop being so pessimistic" Setsuna sternly reminded her tea partner "both of them are far smart enough to work out their differences, and they will"

"So then why did you interfere if they could fix it on their own?"

"Personal reasons…" Setsuna answered bluntly "and with a problem like the one we're currently facing, it was really best that we solved it as soon as possible…"

'At least you haven't forgotten we have a conflict to face' Haruka though as she lowered her cup "it could still come apart"

For her; Ami's mother loosing faith in Ami would have only confirmed that strongly held belief that parents were all the same everywhere. Her parents had long since lost faith in her for different reasons and Haruka was sure that disclosing her secret identity wouldn't even merit a second thought before being ignored again.

"That's true, but I don't think so" Setsuna explained "because of my…our intervention; Saeko can sleep easier and come to a more rational conclusion in time for tomorrow"

"…and just graciously accept the fate that her daughter has to face" Haruka completed the thought sarcastically "Setsuna, I'm hoping that they make it, just as much as you do…but do you really think that Doctor Mizuno is going to make it over that hurdle?"

Setsuna sipped her drink and thought about it seriously. Even after meeting her, talking to her, answering her concerns and questions; Setsuna hadn't quite known how the elder Mizuno would overcome that challenge. There was just too much professional denial built into being who she was at work to make her want to believe in her daughter. Such was the problem Setsuna really didn't know for sure, even with her sagely insight.

"Well, I guess the best we can do is wait and see"

Before Haruka could continue playing devil's advocate to Setsuna; the sound of a car was heard entering the driveway of their residence.

* * *

It was coming up to nine in the evening; the sun was down, the stars – what ones that were bright enough to overcome the light pollution – were out, the air was cold and the wind was colder still. By all standards however; it was actually rather early for Saeko to even be going home this early in the evening. Even though her roster usually indicated an early evening departure from work; it was rare that she left on time for home at all; rarer still that she would go home earlier than her delay would allow her to. But, added to her fatigue, her fellow doctor's insistence that they could handle things and the administration's hesitation to decide whether or not to trust her again; forced the clinical doctor to accept the early leave with a measure of gratitude. It could've been worse Saeko reflected; they could've used her groggy, irritable and reliance on others as a reasonable excuse to reprimand her again. But they hadn't, the floor senior intern, on the advice of the department head, simply dismissing her and telling her to get some rest before coming to work tomorrow.

The trip home had been uneventful and quiet. With fatigue – that no coffee could fix – setting in; Saeko was feeling every meter now as she walked closer to home, and bed. Not that she had difficulty staying awake; the thoughts of the day had kept her alert enough to make the various key decisions that she had to make on the way home; where to turn, which platform to stand on, which train to wait for, which station to get off, the street to walk home on and all decisions that a tired mind could make a mistake on. Like before, as she trudged along the main road and towards the side street towards her apartment, Saeko started to examine the day and last few hours in more detail again as the mindless task of walking freed up space to think about other things. The morning, the afternoon and the early evening; all like a three – actually four or five depending on how you saw it – act play; replayed in her mind as she walked down the empty narrow streets.

It was a lot to think about for one day, almost too much; being tired from the beginning certainly didn't help. But she managed to retain a lot of it and now as she went home, Saeko had a chance to revisit the day's highlights. While the morning had been – thanks to the combination of her fatigue and the interns – particularly quiet, the afternoon after lunch had not been. The serious but semi-formal meeting with Setsuna had kicked things off; their hour and a bit talk about Saeko's personal dilemma and how to solve it had sparked life back into her as she learnt new things about her daughter's secret. Even as tired as she was; Saeko could remember almost every word of their meeting, right down to the challenge laid out to believe in her daughter.

And after that was over, there had been hours of panic over what it turned out to be nothing at all. The contamination case, as the doctors had started to call it; proved to be by the fifth hour of examination to be nothing more than coincidental event. Nobody else besides those staff members was even slightly affected, and upon learning that both nurses obtained their lunches from difference sources; the contamination scare had reduced dramatically. It still didn't excuse the fact that they had gotten sick in the first place and as Saeko was walking home, and the other senior doctor's routines returned to normality; junior interns were running around to every vending machine that served food and put a 'put of order' note on each of them. It would be an incident that would shake the confidence of the interns, that as Hiroyoshi noted, was overdue for a reality check.

The thought process had carried Saeko all the way home and by the time she had reached that conclusion, she was outside her apartment block and near the entrance. Had she been more alert, and a little more suspicious of her surroundings; Saeko might have remarked how odd it was for one of the street lamps to have a busted bulb, leaving a dark spot just beyond the entrance of her home. But she didn't think too much of it and in a second she was inside the building anyway. After waiting for a minute for the lift to carry her to the right floor; Saeko stumbled along the corridor to her apartment and went inside.

"I'm home!" Saeko said out of habit

Nothing, as though she was supposed to be surprised by that. Well, it didn't take very long for her to confirm Ami wasn't home; the lights were out, it was cold inside, everything was where it was suppose to be, the phone was blinking its usual red light at her, the whiteboard hadn't changed; everything was as it was suppose to be. After turning on the heating for her room and disrobing – with about as much grace as a teenager would have done – Saeko slipped into her nightgown and fairly crashed her mass against the soft, silky sheets of her bed. Groaning at the aches that now came from standing up too long and walking too far, she rolled over and started to doze off. Her last conscious thought of the day was a promise to herself that she would find an answer to that question tomorrow morning.

* * *

Outside and down below on the street; a man stepped out from the dark spot on the street and congratulated himself for guessing the pathway that the senshi's mother had taken to get from the station to her home and for himself again for not being detected by the senshi living here or the senshi's mother. His mission done, Colonel Soyuz shrugged off the cold and walked away; it would not do him well to hang around any longer than he had to in a place like this. After walking a fair distance from the apartment block – and hopefully far enough that no senshi could detect him – back towards the station, Colonel Soyuz looked for a dark alley or something to disappear in.

Amongst the crowds coming back and forth, from shopping, to nightclubs and so on, the colonel blended in with them quite well considering some of the exotic looks that some of the younger members of the crowd exhibited. Deciding to follow the crowd until an opportunity presented itself. He eventually walked with them into the station itself where he found a perfect place to discreetly sneak away. After making his way across the tide of people, he walked down a hallway and into the men's room. To his surprise, he found it empty and without waiting a second longer activated his portal watch. When the next person came in a second or two later, nobody was in the room.

* * *

_Author's commentary: One interesting thing i should point out about is that Setsuna and Haruka's scenes werent really included in the orginal drafts, but when i found myself in a third scene intercut, i needed a fourth scene to cut to, and then i created them, which i added in retroactively to make the story much better. _

_This was the last chapter done before I had a brief 2 month hiatus put into place. Complicated issues had come up and it had forced me to halt production._


	15. Chapter 14: Countdown

**Chapter 14: Countdown**

Morning had come a lot easier than the previous day for Ami. Unlike the night before; Ami had slept sufficiently well enough that it almost made her feel guilty for taking Rei's bed – for which her friend had insisted she take anyway – last night. Even with their one hour siesta yesterday, Ami had run herself to past exhaustion as she slowly worked her way around the temple; all the while sustaining herself by thinking about her question that had caused the insomnia. But even with that sustaining Ami; by the time they had come to sleep, she had been unable to hide the exhaustion from Rei who made a decision on who took the bed this time. When morning came, the two had awoken, not only a lot more refreshed than the previous day – as long night of deep sleep did to a person – but with clearer minds about their respective problems.

For Rei, the benefit of knowing that the problem Ami was dealing with had been partially solved had eased her tension and allowed her the chance to leave it for the morning. For Ami, with the assurance and support of her friends, regained ability to shut her problems out of her sleep and awoke feeling more refreshed than she had in the last week. A Subsequent morning bath to melt away the stiffness in her shoulders, followed by breakfast to fuel her morning gave her all the boost Ami needed to resolve her problem today, all was left now was for her to go home and confront her mother; but only after she had done her bit to say thanks to Rei.

Ami stroked the stone pavers again for the uncounted time with the broom as she swept the falling leaves and dirt to the side of the path. Like the neat person Ami was at home, she was careful to get every speck of gravel that had been either blown onto the pavers the previous evening, or had been left behind by the dozen or so pairs of shoes that carried all sorts of dirt to the temple. The job was almost therapeutic to Ami now, menial work as it was; it did let her think about the problem of confronting her mother and how to best apply the advice both Rei and Setsuna offered.

"You know…you ever thought about becoming a shrine maiden" Rei noted slyly as she turned to check

Ami briefly blushed at the complement, but had returned her natural color by the time she faced her friend as she gave a natural defense "Thanks…but I don't think I could do it as well as you"

"Nonsense" Rei replied with a chuckle "you've already got the posture for it"

"Just doing what I can to say thanks"

Rei could only smile at the reply, even if she felt a little guilty putting Ami to work again. With their moment passed, Rei grabbed her broom and started helping out Ami with the pavers. As she stroked them as proficiently as a lifetime of this task made her do. She started thinking about their discussion this morning again. Their discussion hadn't lasted longer than breakfast but they did make some ground on working out how to disclose the information to Ami's mother safely. Far more productive than it could've been had they done it last night, it still didn't find the best approach to the problem, thought Ami did make it clear this morning she would confront her mother at the end of the day, no matter what.

"So have you worked out what to say?" Rei started to talk

"Yes…" Ami replied "I thought about it again and I think she was right…"

Rei stopped brushing the pavers at hearing that and propped herself on the broom.

"Who was right?"

"Setsuna-san…" Ami replied without turning to look. Realizing that Rei deserved an explanation, Ami paused sweeping the pavers to explain "I thought about what she said and then I realized…if all I have to do is tell the truth, then why am I trying to find ways to tell the truth better? I think I know what Setsuna-san meant now…any attempt to try telling it in another way would be lying…"

"I guess that's one way of putting it" Rei remarked, wondering how in her mind Ami's conclusion linked up with what Rei was told first hand by Setsuna. All she got for an answer was a smirking thought 'the genius Ami Mizuno is back in action'

"I'm just going to tell her straight, and if mom doesn't get it, ill keep explaining it until mom understands it" Ami explained in simpler terms

"That always worked for Usagi and Minako" Rei replied before resuming her sweeping "So when is your mother suppose to be home tonight anyway?"

"I think the roster said just after six…but I haven't seen it in a few days" Ami replied honestly as she resumed her own sweeping "and that's assuming mom didn't get called in early or something"

"Going to wait up?"

"If I have to…" Ami responded "…I just want to talk to her now"

"Sounds like a plan" Rei chuckled as she too resumed sweeping the pavers.

Irony was something that both mother and daughter knew was only humorous through the excellent vision of hindsight. Despite the best of planning and foresight, it only took one assumption to make something conclude in a fairly different way. This morning it was the junior Mizuno's fault, because despite Ami's long experience with the elder Mizuno's constant roster changes, never had it occurred that the roster might change in her favor. As a result, an early conclusion to their separated time was extended another half day and Saeko found herself pondering what to do for the rest of her morning.

She had been rudely awoken by the phone mere minutes before and just before the alarm clock would have woken her up today, to be summarily informed that her scheduled shift had been pushed back at least five hours due to a clerical error in arranging the senior staff meeting this afternoon. Suppressing her anger at the cheery – and she felt sarcastically patronizing – voice on the other end of the line, Saeko sighed as she submitted to the request and hung up the phone.

"Great, now what do I do?" Saeko voiced her first thoughts of the day.

That answer didn't take long; as if on queue, her alarm clock chimed and instructed the sole occupant of the apartment the original scheduled start of the day, now made redundant thanks to a phone call that had just woken her up. Hearing the chiming noise, Saeko again sighed as she turned around in her housecoat and walked back to her room.

Lightly tapping the sleep button, Saeko accomplished her only objective of the day thus far and again returned to her original problem. After standing there for almost three minutes on thoughtlessness, Saeko's mind rebooted itself and finally came up with something to do while she decided to figure out what to do for the entire morning.

Saeko subconsciously discarded her housecoat – just like she had with the previous few day's of work clothes and undergarments – onto the floor and walked across the hall and into the bathroom. Getting a good look at herself in the mirror for the day, Saeko examined her face at least and noted that she at least didn't look as bad as yesterday. Shaking off the disheveled feeling that waking up gave her, Saeko turned to the shower and disrobed. Ten minutes of blissful warm water later; Saeko emerged and – feeling the cold air outside the tile cell – wasted no time grabbing her towel and drying off.

With a towel firmly wrapped around her and feeling at least cleaner than she had ten minutes ago, Saeko returned to her room. After changing herself into something causal for the morning's chores she had decided to do, Saeko started her day.

'I guess I can do the washing today' her thoughts were as Saeko looked around on the room at the clothes she had left scattered.

After going to the kitchen for a minute to start the coffee machine – which was slow at its task – Saeko returned to her room five minutes later with a clothes basket from the laundry and started gathering the week's laundry from her room. After completing that simple task, Saeko did the further task of making her bed and straightening up the rest of the room up. When Saeko was satisfied that everything was squared aware properly, Saeko moved on to the room next to her own.

'Oh…' Saeko paused for a moment.

At first Saeko hadn't noticed at all – in the regular course of doing so out of habit – though the conscious feeling that came from turning the door handle had interrupted her thought process when she realized she was about to enter her daughter's room. Saeko had been successful so far in forgetting about the problem she had still to resolve, but somehow stopping outside Ami's door had brought it all back to her mind. The elder Mizuno hadn't been in here since the night Ami ran away to her friend's place, where for a few minutes, Saeko had utterly panicked about the wellbeing of her only child, at least until the discovery of the message Ami had left behind.

Now the whole dilemma was starting to feel like a distant memory, despite it only happening two days ago. Saeko didn't even know how she felt about it, even after the surprise visit yesterday from Setsuna – who set her straight on a number of facts – she still didn't have a clue about what she really thought of Ami's secret identity. Even after Setsuna had invited her to come up with own opinion of Ami's Sailor Mercury, Saeko had yet to find a single thing to justify her daughter's membership in that team. For all the words Setsuna used to explain why Ami had been chosen to be a senshi, Saeko was not convinced yet that fate alone could let her accept her daughter's alter ego.

Shrugging off the feeling of confusion and despair for the moment, Saeko wondered about entering her daughter's room for moment before finally realized that nothing was accomplished if she just stood there. Without thinking about it any more than she had, Saeko grudgingly entered the room and went to work with the daily chores that both Mizuno's shared.

"It's just as bad as my room…" Saeko commented, knowing that some of the mess was her own fault.

After dumping her daughter's clothes into the basket along with hers, Saeko repeated the process of straightening up the rest of the room up and in her particular case this morning, returning things to where Saeko had found them the night she discovered her daughter had run away. Approaching Ami's desk, Saeko made a conscious effort to put things back the way they were before the other night. The elder Mizuno was almost successful in achieving that until without looking, she nudged her daughter's laptop which itself pushed the pencil cup the necessary distance to tip the balance, the results were predictable.

Saeko swore briefly as she put down the book she was moving and stepped back to clean up the mess. Kneeling down, Saeko grabbed the Pens, mechanical pencils, Erasers and other pieces of stationary before dumping them back into the cup. When she had accomplished that, she unconsciously looked up at the as she stood, where – among the shelves under her daughter's desk – she saw something she had failed to notice before.

"What's this?" Saeko said as she put the pencil cup back on the desk and kneeled down again to look at the item of interest.

Between old textbooks and other boxes of junk was a shoe-box size antique-looking wooden box that had caught her eye. Curious at the out of place item, Saeko slid it out from the pile it was sandwiched between and placed it on the desk she had just cleaned. Labeled on the top, the simple hiragana told the elder Mizuno at once what the box contained.

"Photographs?"

Just to confirm her own curiosity, Saeko moved the simple lid to discover to her surprise, a nearly full box of photographs – and like the good organized person Ami was, organized by lot and year in zip-lock bags plastic bags – and underneath them a well worn scrap book that had no label on it.

"What is this Ami?" she asked the empty room as the moment passed.

Saeko's curiosity blocked out all her other feelings for just a moment, as she gazed at her discovery. The moment passed quickly, but her motivation to clean the room, or anything else this morning had disappeared upon finding this box. For almost a minute, she did nothing but stared into the box, counting the number of bags and looking down at the scrap book lining the bottom.

'I wonder if…' Saeko's mind started to stutter out thoughts 'no…Ami wouldn't forgive me if…but…what if she was going to show me these anyway…I could…could I?'

At that very moment, the cheeping sound of the coffee machine echoed through her ears. Now not knowing what to do, Saeko in the end decided to indulge her curiosity, if only because the temptation was too much to ignore. With all the time she had this morning; how could she ignore something so interesting to look at?

"I'm sorry Ami…" Saeko said as she picked the box up "please forgive my intrusion…"

Saeko walked out with the little treasure she had just found and into the living room where she deposited it on the coffee table. After a minutes of business in the kitchen; Saeko returned to the living room with a mug of hot brew and a growing curiosity as she carefully sat herself down on the couch. As she sipped her first cup of coffee for the day slowly, Saeko stared at the box with interest. It was starting to occur to her that inside this box was something Saeko might have never seen before; a literal library of pictures and things that's existence had evaded her knowledge. just like her daughter's secret idenity.

The pang of guilt came from doing something without permission dissipated soon enough as she wondered about the benefit – as Saeko justified to herself – they might have in helping her find an understanding about her daughter's life.

"Well, I've got all morning" Saeko spoke to herself as she placed her coffee mug on a coaster and removed the lid again.

* * *

In her own personal den, Denisa was hard at work on her own personal aspect of the mission they were now collectively planning for. Their decision to ahead with the mission had come at dawn; no sooner, for the colonels didn't want to disturb the sleep of their general, and no later, since delaying the meeting to decide couldn't wait any longer if they were to make use of this new information. At the start of the meeting; all five colonels and their general listened with mixed reactions as one of their own reported his findings from his evening stroll in Minato district; all the while pondering with great interest; knowing quite well of his expertise and authority on this subject would make his evaluation on the subject final.

But much to Denisa's disapproval; Soyuz's report was the sound vindication that Vita had prayed for. With Colonel Soyuz – who was a professional and respected warrior among the others – endorsing the information the remaining intelligence had gathered as being genuine, Vita had obtained her first grasp at creditability without the overture protection of either the general or her deceased mentor. Now assured of that personal creditability and proven reliability in the document she had acquired; Vita had personally been able to get her proposed battle plan – after having its details filtered through Soyuz – approved by their leader.

Even after her own protest on the merits of the plan, she had been unable to turn the minds of the other colonels and their general to reconsider the crazy inept plan that their intelligence officer had concocted. The resulting double punch counter objection from both fellow colonels was almost too much to endure. Not only were they teaming up against her – to which Denisa found Soyuz's defense of the younger intelligence officer almost unbelievable – but more importantly, they we're right. Compared to her plan, there was no difference in risk but the merits of the Vita plan insured better success.

The rest of the meeting had merely been about the assigning of tasks in the lead up to the mission; and as Denisa silently cooked away her rage at the indignity of a few minutes prior, she had missed the general's instructions to her and the other colonels. At having her instructions repeated; Denisa couldn't quite describe how angry she was with herself with that slip in concentration and her emotional restraint was all that separated her from leaping across the table to throttle the intelligence officer for the seemingly patronizing remark that resulted.

And so she found herself in her private den, mulling over the meeting with a task quite different to the others colonels; while they set about to prepare for the battle, before Denisa on a table were a number of watches, all of whom needed their magical batteries recharged and rewound for the right teleporting settings. The task was fairly boring but – though as the general pointed out – it was an important technical skill that Denisa specialized in, not that it seemed to have the same appreciative value as Intelligence gathering or ambushing, but it gave her something to do.

"Okay…Me, the general, Vita, the twins and Soyuz…" Denisa checked off the watches that she needed to maintain "Well, I better get started"

The watches were a fairly self explanatory technology to Dark kingdom commanders. Faced with the cost to magical reserves that teleportation created, the Dark kingdom had developed these singular devices as a way of preserving a reserve of energy for the lower ranks to move about in combat without draining their own – likely nearly depleted – magical batteries. Until the fall of Beryl and Metallica, the use of the watches was fairly common place in the lower ranks, there being enough magical mana in the dark kingdom for the higher echelons to negate their purpose. But now they were a mandatory requirement for anyone, even generals – who once enjoyed the ability of getting around without the aid of magical devices – needed them.

To the layman, they transported you wherever you needed to go within a certain limitation, but to people who knew their inner workings better; it was a very complicated device. For one, the batteries needed constant replacing as they wore out too easily. Another problem was the temporal signature they left behind could hang in the area for up to a week and if used in large numbers, could provide an easy trail for their enemies to use in locating their hideout. Finally, they were very easy to break; one badly winded watch could accidently send a colonel somewhere like the exiled lands, or to an unspeakable death in a pocket between time and space.

For this reason, Denisa was very careful with her handy work. It was a skill in which she, while having not quite mastered, at least learnt properly. It was proudly one of the two things she was good at, the other being killing people. Upon completing the replacement of all the batteries, Denisa stopped to ponder about the owner of the watch she now held.

"Vita you arrogant child…" Denisa seethed "you just had to go ahead and think up this stupid plan…"

It was a terrible plan, even after having her alternative idea quashed, Denisa had not bought into the idea that the general had accepted. What they were doing was worse than the straight ambush she planned, but none of them had even tried to hear her out before the idea was rejected. Had Denisa planned this operation, they would've gone in with a 4 person team in dead of night – after everyone had gone to sleep – and slaughtered everyone inside before the senshi among them could scream 'Mercury Star Power!' and try stop her.

Sure it wouldn't have looked clean and sure by the next day the other senshi would be in a state of paranoia that would make attacking them impossible and sure that would make identifying the other senshi they had a civilian face to harder to accomplish. But their goal would have been accomplished, to do what was considered impossible and kill a senshi, wasn't that what the general wanted? Why did he want to try luring them into a trap where their odds of winning decreased as the portioned number of Senshi in the battle increased?

'Vita has really suborned Soyuz and the general into believing this stupid idea…' Denisa thought viciously 'She sure picked up Azreal's ability to fool people easily enough…'

With her plan, exactly that would happen, even with the proposed demands, Denisa couldn't predict. She knew that ambushing was an art that could be played by both sides. It was because of this and many other things that Denisa couldn't stand Vita anymore. It was just not fair how the intelligence types got so many breaks for so little work. All vita had done was collect information by posing as a nurse, and suddenly she had more credibility than a veteran warrior like herself, and the blasphemy of it all was that the general completely approved of her tactics, despite the disadvantage there were at pulling it off.

"General, I fail to understand your reasons…" Denisa spoke as she powered mana into Vita's watch "…but Vita, your cowardly tactics are unacceptable!"

Denisa finished powering the new battery and placed it aside Vita's watch. one further complication that came with these devices was a design flaw that the original inventor didn't really consider fully. Io install a new capacitor or battery, one had to disassemble the entire watch to achieve that since the connectors were underneath the mechanism, which in any civilian watch was unheard of. Sighing her own dispassion – with a trace of smirk – and annoyed at her task, Denisa started to disassemble the watch. That was easily accomplished in a few minutes, having done so many times before with expert skill that nobody seemed to appreciate. When the watch was broken down into the fifteen or so pieces, Denisa finally replaced the battery and started the process of reassembling the watch again.

Halfway through the insertion of parts, Denisa came up to a fairly important part of the watch, the relay junction or the central point that discharged the power from the battery and the temporal 'percussion' hammer, a miniture silver hammer with a spring attached that was designed to regulate the power in the relay junction. Without the latter, the former had control over the power going through it and had the potential of overshooting the destination or even failing to return the user to the real world. Without even breathing to consider what she was about to do, Denisa ignored inserting the hammer into the watch and continued to put the temporal inhibitor over the top of where the Hammer was suppose to go.

When the watch was assembled, Denisa popped the top back on the watch and placed it besides the others. Whatever second doubts she had about the plan she had hatched this morning drained when Denisa proceeded to pick up the microscopic size metal piece and threw it out the window, landing somewhere she didn't know, but never to be seen again she was sure.

* * *

"Is this really my Ami?" Saeko asked again herself in surprise.

Over the last hour, she had gone through five zip-lock bags, and she was barely halfway through them all before her conscious mind relapsed and to look at the time. Barely an hour into her five hour respite had passed, but Saeko felt like she had been sitting here all day. It was something that bogged the mind, certainly when guided by the date-stamp which was now dated June 1995 on the photo she was holding.

Ami had organized the pictures fairly well though looking at them; Saeko had pondered why she hadn't opted for photo albums, since the sheer volume of pictures seemed to qualify their need. On each ziplock bag was a paper label indicating when the photos were all taken – in the present case, from Feburary to July 1995 – while inside the bag itself, the photos were separated by the batches they were taken in and left, with their negatives, in the flimsy envelopes that they came in from the photo lab at the chemist. Each in turn was numerically labeled by Volume in order of date. It was almost like a time capsule. Over three and a half years had passed since the first picture had been taken, and it certainly showed.

In the first picture Saeko saw; Ami was shy, withdrawn, and decked out in her middle school uniform while reluctantly standing next to Usagi and another girl with short brown hair for a picture. The Ami in this picture certainly contrast well – thought what she contrasted with was a word that escaped her – with the Ami she had yelled at a few nights before. With that one look at her daughter of yesteryear; Saeko was certainly reminded of how proud she was of her academic accomplishments, but since looking at that first picture and onwards at every new volume of pictures, she had noticed something about her daughter that had changed.

Saeko had seen every one so far, two years of memories had passed in her hands and in addition to watching how Usagi, Rei, Makoto, Minako and the other senshi members became deeply apart of Ami's life, Saeko was now trying to keep track of Ami's evolving smile. Having the benefit of rapidly flipping through the volumes of photos and having something of a good memory, Saeko had noted with growing admiration the lengths at which Ami had changed. Cosmetically, they hadn't changed too much, but psychologically she had changed her expressions.

She didn't droop her eyes with constant worry anymore and she was smiling a lot warmer than even the pictures from year before. At the start; it was almost like Ami was doing it because the camera was pointed at her, but in these latest pictures, that smile had become a lot warmer and she hasn't afraid to laugh now. She was more expressive, more open, and even without the ability to animate her movements on film; Ami was more…

'…Confident?' Saeko finished that thought and looked up again.

Confidence; now there was a word she had a hard time associating with Ami. Sure her daughter was self-assured in her studies; but – Saeko admitted to herself – that had more to do with extensive preparation and a build up of experience. It was not the same as an assertive attitude. Without noticing it herself at first, Saeko had finally worked out what contrasted that first picture of Ami with the Ami she had now. It was almost too obvious, and when Saeko finally managed to link the word with the Ami she knew today, it finally became a lot clearer…then it became foggy again.

"Where did she get this confidence from?" Saeko asked herself aloud.

Saeko closed her eyes and thought about that question seriously. There were Ami's positive traits – she was a hard worker, punctual, talented, creative, polite…all things Ami still was then and now – but none if these traits could've instilled her newfound confidence; and it was definitely not something that she or her former husband could have instilled into Ami as a child. So if it was not because of their influence, or her grades for that matter, then what cosmic force had given her daughter the magical quality that Saeko herself had taken an hour to identify?

The first response that came to Saeko's mind was because her daughter had become Sailor Mercury. One couldn't deny that it had contributed to some small degree – and it certainly helped that practically all of her friends were senshi as well – but inwardly, that didn't seem right. Judging by the pictures at least, their relationship didn't appear to be merely a reluctant association with each other. Throughout the pictures that so far spanned two years; she saw them go shopping together, to the movies together, to the beach together, even study together.

And more importantly – Saeko remembered from yesterday – when things got tough, all of them didn't hesitate coming to Ami's aid in her time of dilemma. Upon reflecting on that insight of the events from yesterday, Saeko couldn't help but admire her daughter and her friends for their loyalty to each other. She knew from long experience, at school, at work and at home that such relationships were hard to build and especially hard to maintain, even – as Saeko had learnt to her misfortune – in the covenant of marriage.

Saeko finally put down the photographs she had been flipping through to look up at the box again. Here in front of her, was the complete story about how Ami had become the daughter she knew and secretly the sailor senshi she admired. It was the answer to how Ami's friendship with the others had started and how they had helped Ami overcome her lack of confidence. But as much as the insight into Ami's social past was interesting, Saeko still didn't feel satisfied with that alone. There was something else missing, the origin of the magical quality had confidence. No doubt it had helped Ami win friends, but how would that confidence win her mother's confidence in her.

That Saeko realized was the final barrier between herself and understanding her daughter's secret identity. Unfortunately, these pictures didn't show that. In fact, Saeko had not seen a single picture of any of the girls in their senshi forms. Saeko had half expected it, but upon reflection – while opening the third zip-lock bag – this made perfect sense in retrospect. After all, if she had managed to find this box of photos by accident while cleaning Ami's room, then how might things turn out if a photo-lab technician, or worse, the enemy, saw these pictures?

It was regretful that Saeko had no pictures of this confidence in senshi form, but it was understandable. Saeko blinked for a moment and finally caught a glance at the scrap book she had forgotten until now. Having paused from looking at pictures for complete her thoughts just a moment ago, she turned her head down to the old scrap book that she had found at the bottom of this wooden box.

'What is this anyway?' Saeko wondered as she turned her attention to the scrap book. It was fairly old looking, almost of the kind that you'd expect a grade school student to have for art class. But their function wasn't limited to that as Saeko would soon find out. Saeko lifted the book by its bind and turned it to the front. As she did so, a small number of photographs dropped out of the scrap book and fell to the coffee table's surface. Surprise at the new discovery, she placed the book down again and picked up the first picture.

And there were her missing senshi pictures.

"Is this…"

Dated 10/9/1993, it showed Sailor Mercury – In her original form – flanked on either side by Mars and Sailor moon with a black cat similar to Artemis sitting in Ami's lap. Her smile was appropriate for the time it was taken, somehow shy despite being her alter-ego, but still warming up.

"So they do exist" Saeko surprised at the accidental discovery "but why did she hide them in this old book?"

Saeko turned the cover, and soon found out why.

"This is…"

It was a newspaper clipping glued down with cheap dry glue. Saeko started to read the article as it cited – what was at the time still little known – Sailor moon saving a cram school. Saeko instantly recognized the name of the cram school that Ami attended at time; she started to put things together in her head. Saeko tried to think about the significance of this article until she remembered back to something her daughter had said the night she found out Ami was Sailor Mercury.

'Ami said that she was the first girl recruited by Sailor moon, and that it happened during the battle...could this be…' Saeko wondered '…the day she became sailor Mercury?'

Saeko thought about that insight as she turned the page again…and again…and finally realized the purpose of this scrap book. It was just about every newspaper that ever had to do with the senshi; from the early days, to cult status, to now. To a fan of the senshi – whom Saeko actually was in part – this would've been a noteworthy collectors item. As she turned the pages, inside her fandom side started to emerge again and started remembering the famous battles as their headlines came up.

'Senshi Trio Saves ocean liner passengers; showdown at airport; 5th sailor scout spotted, missing five rescued by Sailor moon' Saeko repeated the headlines as they got bigger and started to come with pictures.

Saeko put the book down again when she finally found an article where a lucky reporter had managed to get a one-in-a-million shot of Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars stepping in front of children head on with the enemy. The image had been her favorite shot before finding out Mercury's secret identity, and it was this image that for the first time in several days finally remembered Saeko why she was so proud of Ami in the first place. In this particular case; Sailor Mercury and Mars had saved the lives of a whole class of grade school students and fighting off some bizarre monster. In defeating that monster, Ami had saved lives, just like she had countless other times before and after that incident.

"So is this really what Ami meant…by doing her duty?" Saeko asked herself before realizing the words she said.

And then Saeko finally remembered the things that instilled her confidence in Mercury in the first place; how she, Sailor moon and the other senshi had come through time and time again to save lives, despite the – she now understood – mortal risk to themselves. On the newsprint; Mercury's expression genuinely radiated her bravery and confidence along with honest truth that she was fighting at the risk of her life. But just like Ami had tried to tell her the night she had been hurt; she was fully aware of the risks involved; even if she was hurt, Ami wouldn't shy away from the battle. It was emotions like these that Saeko could never hope to experience herself, but now she was starting to understand their role in Ami's life.

With these emotions; Ami's soul was fully dedicated to her duty to saving lives in the guise of Sailor Mercury; just like Saeko was fully dedicated to saving lives in her capacity as a doctor. As dissimilar their methods and experiences were, they both shared a common goal; the foggy image cleared again and in second of enlightenment; Saeko finally understood.

"I think I understand now…" Saeko told herself "and I think I can finally accept it…"

Putting down the scrap book and looking up at the wall clock, barely ninety minutes of her morning had passed. It was at that moment she wanted to face Ami and tell her that she finally understood; but Saeko blinked her eyes and the realization of reality stood in the way again.

"Four hours huh?"

At least that many stood in the way between now and the meeting she had to attend, which almost certainly would push any chance of talking to Ami – if she came home today – tonight. Saeko was a patient person under most situations, but this was a sole exception; through circumstances caused again by her workplace bosses, she had been again robbed of the chance to see her daughter…and further to resolve this dilemma once and for all.

'Not again…not again' Saeko repeated to herself as she stood and finally told herself '…not anymore'

Saeko walked over to the phone and punches the seventh speed dial button. It rang for only a few seconds before the person picked up.

"Good morning Doctor Mizuno" Mei replied. Saeko didn't need to be told she was reading her name off the caller ID.

"Who exactly are we delaying the meeting for?"

"Uh...let me check…" Mei replied and paused. After hearing the sounds of papers being ruffled, the answer came back "It's not Hiroyoshi, he is doing paperwork, Ryosuke is on duty…I think it's…Hatori and the head of the clinical department"

"Alright, set the meeting for ninety minutes from now" Saeko announced.

* * *

They were assembled in the cellar of the inn, the only room in the building that was large enough, and the only room not visible from the outside. All of them had worked through the morning to prepare for the mission for which they were about to undertake and now their general was making his final judgment before the men and women of his small unit.

"Is everyone here?" The general called out

"Yes Sir" Soyuz said automatically.

"Yes Sir" Vita replied, standing at ease.

"Yes General" Denisa, clenching her battle sword slung over her shoulder.

"Yes Sir" both Lin and Rin replied at the same time.

"Very well" the general nodded before continuing "Colonel Vita, you mentioned something you needed to give me?"

"Yes sir" Colonel Vita repeated and stepped forward.

In her hands was a set of Motorola Mobile handsets. As she handed them out to the other colonels and the general, she began to explain their purpose and reason. At first all of them were annoyed at this last minute addition to the plans, especially Denisa; but upon elaboration of the reason from Vita and then Soyuz, the rest of the team finally caught on.

"It's not unusual to see people use these devices, a lot of people have one, you wont look out of place if you use it" Vita explained "…I have reprogrammed them to work without the restrictions that their communication net puts on these devices"

"But what if the Senshi pick up these communications as well?" Denisa asked

"Compared to telepathy, of which only a few people can do…" Soyuz answered "there are literally thousands of calls that they regular civilians make themselves…its practically impossible to monitor each and every one"

"Very well" The general decided, seeing the logic in this addition to the plan "Good work Colonel Vita"

The general turned to address all of his people. In front of him were his five remaining colonels and twenty auto-troops. It wasn't anywhere near the size of an army like the ones he had commanded in the distant past; but he had no doubt over their loyalty to the kingdom – especially now that the old monarchy had died – and to their mission.

"The mission is simple and straightforward" the general started his short lecture to his small band of troops "we go in, we do what we planned to do, we get out…we are professional soldiers of the kingdom, not disorganized thugs…all of you have your objectives, follow them through without question and we will succeed…fail to do so, and we will be defeated. This mission requires nothing more than that…everything else you already know how to do well. You are colonels of the dark kingdom and more importantly, you are earth's last hope in preventing another Moon kingdom!"

The general finished and looked at the end

"Colonel Denisa"

"Yes sir" Denisa spoke up

"As every man and woman who wears this uniform should know the answer by now; why do we call ourselves the dark kingdom?"

"Because we were left in the dark while they took our dawn, our day and our dusk" Denisa responded loudly

"And will we let them steal it again?" the general asked

"No sir!"

The general nodded his approval before addressing all of them again

"Very well" he replied loudly "You all have your orders, prepare to deploy"

"Yes Sir"

And with his stern words of authority, the colonels all at once moved and started the mission they had collectively thrown their fates and the fate of the dark kingdom's legacy into. In a matter of five minutes, the portal had opened and transported all of them to their rally point for tonight's battle.

* * *

Minako hadn't expected to run into Ami in her travels today, but it had been a welcome relief to see a friendly face. All day until three in the afternoon; Minako had been stuck with her relatives as they went to visit more Tokyo tourist attractions. Despite submitting to their request to see Big Sight and the docks area, Minako's aunt hadn't been too impressed with Minako. The Senshi figurines were already old news to everyone in the house and even the cousins had started to waver in their questions, but Minako's aunt hadn't stopped finding a way to link them – and her personality in general – to every bad thing that she did on their visit to Tokyo.

Minako's patience for her visiting relatives was starting to grind away as they continued to pick at her faults, and while she didn't stop her fantasizing about introducing her aunt to the whole troupe; Minako had reluctantly decided to head out and get some fresh air before confronting them again. She hadn't really figured out where to go exactly – burdening Rei didn't seem like a good idea at the moment – but when she ran into Ami, it only took a few sentences to convince Ami to invite her to come over; even at the price of carrying the groceries for her.

"So you're going to talk to her about…it?"

"Tonight…that's if mom isn't already home" Ami confirmed as she reached for her keys "I can't remember when she was supposed to leave work today, but whenever she gets home tonight…"

"Well, if you need my support, I'm here for you" Minako shined.

Ami let out a humored sigh as she turned the door and entered and announced her presence.

"I'm home!"

Nothing; not that Ami was expecting her mother to be home given the time of day, it was just a habit too hard to shake, even when you knew better. The apartment was quite dark with the curtains hastily pulled shut. Ami didn't lament on this for any longer than she had to and in a few minutes, both her and Minako were in the kitchen putting away tonight's dinner.

"Hey Minako, can you open the curtains?"

"Sure" the blonde teenager replied and walked out of the kitchen.

As Minako left to her task, she caught an eye on the infamous dry board that knew all too well. The board itself was rather humorous to Minako; The Aino household had tried to implement a similar system awhile ago, but it had never caught on as effectively as the Mizuno or Hino households. She only took a quick glance, but the length – and then the content – of the message on the elder Mizuno's side got her attention

"Hey Ami, what's this message about?" Minako pointed to the dry board.

Ami turned her attention to it – something she would have done once the cold foods were stowed away – and realized that there was actually a message on the board. Closing the fridge door; Ami walked over and started to read the quite messy kanji.

"Meeting was delayed two hours…had it pushed forward…will be home for dinner…sorry about the box?" Ami read it slowly and added the question as she wondered – with some concern – as to what she meant about the last thing. It didn't take too long before Minako was alerted to something else Ami had missed on the way in. They could be forgiven for missing it – given how dark the living room is when the curtains are drawn – but after just pulling them half way open, Minako finally noticed the contents scattered over the coffee table.

"Hey Ami, why are your pictures out here?"

"Oh no…" Ami spoke as her internal embarrassment gauge spiked "don't tell me she…"

In her rush to get ready, Saeko hadn't bothered to put the photos back. Spread out across the coffee table was the box, a pile of photo bags and her newspaper scrapbook with its assortment of sensitive pictures scattered across the table. Ami came closer, as thought to confirm the identity the contents that her mother had obviously gone through.

"…how'd she find those?" Minako asked worryingly, as she resumed pulling back the curtain to let some afternoon light in.

"Good question" Ami realized and hurried to check her room out.

Minako had a brief spark of worry about her friend's reaction if the elder Mizuno had indeed ransacked her daughter's room for clues...it would more than definitely destroy any restoration of trust. For Ami to have her privacy invaded in her absence; it'd sink her hopes into the sea.

"Ami?"

When Minako didn't hear a single word after the door was opened, she casually thought the worst and walked around to see if Ami had frozen in shock. To her surprise – and relief – however, it wasn't the case.

"Ami, is everything okay?" Minako tapped her friend on the shoulder.

"Yeah…I just expecting…" Ami walked forward to see where the ransacking had disappeared to. Her room was clean, clean in the normal sense if her mother had come in and done the weekly...

'It was an accident' Ami realized when she finally saw the discarded laundry basket on her bed, 'mom must've come in here to clean and…'

"Ami?" Minako repeated after minute of silence

"It's okay…" Ami smiled "She didn't do it on purpose"

"What?" Minako cocked an eyebrow. The blonde senshi was good at reading situations, but had to admit this time it didn't make a lot of sense. If it was her personnel privacy being invaded, Minako would've – and had nearly done so in the last few days – exploded in anger. But from Ami's reaction she hadn't even flared for a second; it too difficult to understand until Ami explained it.

"She must've come across them when she was picking up my laundry…she got curious and…"

"That's still pretty bad…" Minako replied

"It is…" Ami said with a touch of sadness "but if it was by accident…I can forgive her…"

The two of them calmed down as they returned to the living room and looked for something to do; for Ami, she simply walked back into the kitchen and finished putting away the milk and juice bottles before throwing the plastic bags in a cotton bag for future use. Minako on the other hand dropped her body down on the couch and looked over the box that the elder Mizuno had gone through.

"I guess it cant hurt that she saw all of this though" Minako pondered as she scanned through the scrapbook "I meant if she read this…maybe she might understand what you a lot better…"

Ami paused in her motion as she walked to the couch. It hadn't really occurred to her straight away to think about it like that; but to be fair she hadn't really expected her mother to find those pictures – no matter how obvious they were on display – and then examine them. It certainly was something she had forgotten about in the course of the last few days.

Minako looked up when she got no reply and simply said "Ami, stop freezing"

Ami unfroze as though instructed by Minako and resumed her course to sit next to her friend. She looked down at the table again where everything had been scattered and picked up a picture at random. It could have been a better random picture; Sailor moon was grabbing Mars by the waist, whom had the usually look she reserved when Usagi was a tad annoying. It wasn't the kind of picture that would perfectly explain how the confronted the dangers that they encountered; but it did have its own value in explaining the unity between them.

"I remember that time" Minako chuckled at the picture Ami was holding "it was just after we got our uniform upgrades…see?"

Ami looked at the shoulders and saw the clear plastic flairs that they all now sported. Looking at them only confirmed the date stamp which was a lot easier for her cardinal memory to recall. It had been some battle in the aftermath, showing Sailor moon happy that it was finished and over thanking Sailor Mars for saving her skin…again.

"Good times…" Minako said as she grabbed another from roughly two months later "oh, have a look here"

Ami looked over and saw herself. She was in her new Sailor mercury uniform and holding Luna like she normally did, behind her Sailor Jupiter was leaning on the short senshi and smiling into the camera.

"I think that was for your birthday that year" minako looked at the date. 10/9/1995 was the date stamp, and it was also around the time of their battles with Galaxia.

"Yeah…" Ami breathed as she lay back and looked at the image for what it was. Now that was an image she could have shown her mother – if she hadn't already seen it – when she got home and they talked about things. It was too bad that she nothing to show her mother now, but as Minako had pointed out, it might have been a good thing.

The two of them started to collect the photographs and clean up the coffee table that the elder Mizuno had messed up. When everything was sufficiently organized, Ami replaced the lid and slid the wooden box to the center of the table.

"So what now?" Minako asked, hoping to extend her stay around at the Mizuno residence until dinner. Straight away, could see the look on Ami's face; it wasn't hard to tell when she felt bad for what she was going to say next.

"Well, I have to put the laundry in the washing machine…" Ami said edging on her fears of being a bad host to Minako "You want to stay over for dinner?"

"Sure" Minako patted her on the shoulder and chuckled "…and I can help, it's the least I can do for hiding here for a couple of hours"

"Th-thanks…" Ami stuttered, but meant it.

* * *

There was something about leaving work that liberated a person; even after a good day at the office, there was no better feeling that going home. For Saeko; the feeling was amplified by a number of factors. First; her day for once had actually been fairly productive, given how late in the day she had started. Second; Saeko had managed to leave on time without any delay. Third and finally; both of the other two factors had been thanks to her own initiative and her own decisive action.

It turned out the meeting might not have happened at all if it wasn't for Saeko's urgent enquiry this morning. Upon discovering the – almost – quite deliberate scheduling mistake and after getting all the meeting members in through direct calls; Saeko had successfully salvaged it with enough time to cover what they had to and finish on time. In addition to creating another victory for the doctors in this hospital over the failing reputation of the administration department; it had restore a large portion of Saeko's creditability in the eyes of her bosses.

All of them were now readily willing to overlook her infringement of hospital guidelines; both thanks to this deed and – if the rumors were correct – to avoid another problem that Saeko herself wasn't quite aware of.

"It's been a good day" Saeko told herself as turned to corner. She breathed in the air, chilled by the early evening as she started to make a brisk walk towards the train station and home.

Saeko still didn't know what she felt more proud of; figuring out how to see Ami's alter ego profession in a positive light again, or the fact that she had made a minor victory over her battle with work hassles; either way it would duplicate if Ami came home today. Already she was thinking along in those terms; her mind so distracted by that prospect that she had failed to notice the person that was now following her.

If a passerby was to describe the person following the elder Mizuno, they would have been mistaken in the details as they came closer to the station. At first – as saeko left the hospital – her follower had looked like a fellow nurse walking behind her. This follower had gone halfway until she disappeared around the corner…and a middle aged business woman with an winter coat turned appeared on the street moments later. Just before the part where the crowd started to grow thicker, the follower got closer turned the corner again and disappeared, this time to appear as a university student going home to her dorm.

Eventually, the duo reached the train station. Walking into the homebound crowd of office clerks and alike, both Saeko and her follower entered the train station proper and after crossing the turnstile border between outside and station, Saeko's follower lifted the black bulky brick and started to call someone. Her voice sounded just a little too bubbly for someone after six in the evening, but given her appearance, nobody too much notice of what she was saying anyway. Even if someone was listening while in the confines of the train; the message would've sounded just as typical as any girl in her late teens or early twenties would have said.

Nobody knew that she had just given the codeword to start the attack.

* * *

_Author's commentary: This is definitely one chapter where I am taking a lot of liberty with my interpretation of the Sailor Moon franchise. While I am certain that there would be a photo album for civilian pictures, I highly doubt there would be one for Sailor senshi pictures, especially one owned by Ami. I'm not saying its out of the likeliness, but its definitely something i've invented for this story._

_The scene with Denisa working on the watches had gone through a couple of revisions, really in changing what she did to the watch that makes it faulty. The problem I kept asking myself was looking for a problem that's realistic within the confines of the technology I'm explaining. in the end, this worked out just fine and I cant fault the logic any further than I did._

_This Chapter signaled the return to this project and from here to the end it was a slow process trying to be very careful writing my story out, now that I knew I was closing in on an ending. _


	16. Chapter 15: Capture the flag

**Chapter 15: Capture the flag**

No two recollections are ever the same. Despite the best of intentions, one human mind can not recall the same event the same way as another mind. Whether it is from interpretation or just how one saw the event; each person will have their own story. As a result of this human nature, the respective testimonies of the gas station attendant, the driver in the Mercedes and the store clerk watching the store all saw different things first. In the eyes of the gas station attendant; the first thing he noticed was out of nowhere a portal of dark purple appeared and the eleven beings dropped through it. The driver in the Mercedes however didn't notice anything until he saw in his side mirror the gas station attendant being impaled by a large and obviously deadly blade.

But for the clerk in the store, the first warning of anything wrong came when the glass windows lining the outside were smashed from the resulting explosion of the first grenade was thrown into the Mercedes. In a matter of a minute, one was dead and two critically were wounded and barely the first explosion had barely settled down before the second and third grenade added to the fire that attack had just started. This and the ensuring panic however were the first warning signs to a fourth person – only two blocks away – who noticed at once that was not a mere accident.

"Upon reflection… filling up the car this morning was a good idea" Haruka thought as she saw the small mushroom cloud, clouded by the flames below it.

Haruka sighed and looked for an alleyway to park the car; she didn't need to be told by her passenger that they were going to investigate. When she finally found an opening in the now chaotic traffic, Haruka drove the car to a stop in the dead end, after a double flash of light illuminated through the windows and lit the dark ally. Sailor Uranus stepped out followed a second or two later by Sailor Pluto. The two of them merely stood there to hear for a secondary explosion, this they got, but not quite the sound they were looking for.

"Sounds like explosives" Pluto replied as she held her Key staff out like a lance.

"Doesn't matter what it is, let's find out"

Setsuna nodded and in another moment, both she and Uranus were 30 feet in the air and approaching their landing spot on top of the building they parked next to. From here; their view was substantially improved over the brick wall they had in the way, and from there, their assumptions became conclusions. After roof hopping closer; Uranus only needed one look at the place of interest before she confirmed what she was thinking.

"Looks like their back already" Uranus spat "they don't give us a lot of time to rest"

Pluto only nodded and looked around. She couldn't tell who was leading the party, just that the same troupe of black and grey robots were present again. But if their record was go by, their leader wasn't going to be too far away. Without thinking too much else about the subject – for that matter her plans for the evening – Pluto picked up her communicator and pressed the dial button for Sailor Moon, Sailor Venus and Sailor Mars; the closest three senshi to where they were.

* * *

Minako was enjoying her time away from her relatives, though even she had to admit it couldn't last forever; it had been a worthy distraction from her otherwise dismal day. One attraction to visiting Ami's apartment was her cooking. While still the far the junior to Makoto in that department, Ami at least possessed skills worthy of Minako's – whom had cringingly admitted on many occasions her failings in that department – warm praises.

"My communicator is beeping" Minako announced seriously as she dropped the fork and reached for her handbag on the couch. Ami amazingly didn't hear the beep but none the less believed Minako. By the time Ami could fidget through her blouse to see why hers wasn't responding, her friend had picked up on hers.

"Venus here" Minako replied at once

"Our friends are back, the petrol station two blocks west of Tamachi Station" Pluto curtly replied "We're going to engage them now"

"Understood, I'm on my way" Rei's voice replied

"Okay, Matako isn't with me but I'll be on my way in a minute" Usagi replied shortly after Rei.

"Pluto, I'm at Mercury's house, I might be awhile longer" Minako replied last while looking up at the now standing Ami.

"…alright" Pluto replied after her pause, "Soon as you can Venus"

The communicator went dead and with that so did their evening plans.

"Think mom will understand?" Ami said as she fetched her Transformation device from her pocket.

"If she doesn't, she will have to learn to" Minako chirped and drew her own out her own transformation device "But at least now she gets to know where you disappear to"

With the small talk done, Ami and Minako walked to the front door and before they left; transformed into Mercury and Venus. After locking the door, the two of them started their running sprint.

"Sailor Venus, on the way!" Venus announced as she jumped and started her roof hopping dash to Tamachi Station

"Sailor Mercury, on the way" Mercury announced to herself – really copying Venus – as she followed her friend in pursuit towards the battle scene.

Viewing from below and out of the way of both senshi's eyes, a woman sitting on a park bench watched as the two senshi jumped off to the battle she had every conclusion had just started. When she was certain that there were no others heading out, she picked up the phone and made a call, she did not have to wait more than ten seconds before she got a reply.

"Colonel Rin?"

"General, Mercury and Venus just left the nest, heading east"

"Very good Colonel, await for my next call"

"Understood"

* * *

Uranus had been quite tempted to call Hotaru and Michuru to the scene first and make the entire battle an 'all outers' battle; but she knew this would've been impossible. They were both shopping for groceries over in the next district. What Uranus didn't know however was that Michuru and Hotaru were about to become fully involved with another battle. As they loaded their groceries into the car – and talking about their soon to be destroyed evening plans – the distinct noise of glass crashing and the sound of an explosion echoed through the parking garage and told the two of them at once what was going on.

"Again?" Hotaru asked, questioning her own hearing

"Sounds like it" Michuru sighed as she quickly threw the final lot of bags into the boot "Hotaru, start making some calls"

The shortest senshi nodded at once and jumped into the passenger side seat where she had left her handbag. Once Hotaru retrieved her communicator, she started to press buttons for Uranus and Pluto; the first people she always called by default. It took a little too long for a response from either of them, but she none the less got one"

"Yes!" Uranus shouted in "Saturn! Is that you?"

As Uranus screamed, Michuru stood by the younger senshi, waiting for Hotaru to finish.

"Yes" Hotaru replied at once "We have an emergency at…"

"We know; we're already handling it!"

"Okay, we'll be there soon!" Hotaru said, but got no reply.

"That explosion wasn't too far away" Mihuru said pondering "We'll leave the car here"

Hotaru nodded and got out again. In a couple of minutes she and Mihuru were racing up the stairwell by the corner of the building and by the time they reached the roof, they had become Sailor Saturn and Sailor Neptune. With their ability to jump high onto adjoining roofs now unobstructed, the two of them jumped across to the next building where surely enough there was a battle of sorts under way at the train station entrance.

From what Neptune could tell straight away, their enemy had transported in the center of the intersection outside and just blasted their way into the mall that rested above the train station. It was a sloppy entrance, though Neptune had yet to see or hear of a smooth one by this enemy.

"Call up anyone nearby" Neptune said as she evaluated the situation "try Jupiter and Mercury for starters; their homes are the closet to us"

"Okay!" Saturn responded and thumbed her communicator.

* * *

Venus and Mercury had just picked up Artemis when the call came though on the communicators. Being unable to run and talk, the two senshi stopped on the roof of a school building to take the call. Oddly this time, it was Mercury's communicator that was beeping.

"Mercury, Jupiter, are you there?"

"Hello?" Makoto replied.

"Yes Saturn, what is it?" Mercury replied

"We have enemies attacking at Ebisu Station, can you assist us?"

"Okay, I'm near Hiroo Station but I'll be there in a few" Makoto responded before clicking off.

Off to the left of where Mercury was standing, Venus had been checking her own communicator when she overheard the conversation.

"Ebisu station?"

Mercury thought the same and asked "don't you mean Tamachi Station?"

"Tama…wait, where are you going?" Hotaru asked suddenly

"Uranus said there was a battle underway 2 blocks west of Tamachi Station"

There was a slight pause before a new voice came on "This is Neptune, what's going on?"

Mercury repeated what she knew before waiting for a reply; it took awhile since it sounded like a battle was taking place. Eventually Hotaru picked up and continued to relay her counterpart's order.

"Neptune said to come up here, the enemy set a Petrol tanker on fire and she needs you to help her cool the area down, she said needs Venus too"

"Alright, we're turning around now" Mercury replied, looking up at Venus and Artemis for approval. When they both nodded in agreement, she thumbed the disconnect button and started travelling north with Venus to Shibuya district.

* * *

Saeko couldn't have been less aware of the events taking place on the other side of the district. Even with two senshi battles taking place within a few blocks of two stations, there hadn't been so much as even a word about them. To Saeko, the streets of Juban were just like any other unaffected part of Tokyo during a senshi battle; completely normal. It was just the kind of paradox that Tokyo was large enough to experience, even inside the same district; while the – not one, but two – senshi battles took place, the rest of the city was continuing along like normal; at least until the public services started reacting.

Trains and buses were typically delayed, the number of racing police cars and ambulances going in a certain direction would explode and then eventually the press would pick up on the story. Until then however, everyone remained ignorant.

Remarkably; the alert to stop all services on her line hadn't gone through before the train arrived at her stop. Other trains had stopped, at least one or two stations away, but the alert to stop hers didn't come until after Japan Rail had noted the attack on the Ebisu station. It was the sort of good fortune that hindsight toyed with.

Saeko was quite use to walking on her own after dark, but rarely did she walk alone. True to Tokyo's population, she was never shy of fifty fellow pedestrians on the main roads, at least until after late at night; when she preferred a taxi over walking alone the streets. The walk from her house to the station was fairly long, but as Saeko had often told herself 'it was the kind of exercise a women her age needed to get'.

"Might stop by here" Saeko said to herself as she saw a takeout store up ahead.

Her expectations about Ami being home had swayed back and forth for a her entire train ride – any length of time on any train will do that – from optimistic to pessimistic and repeated until she had gotten off the train. The reasons were fairly self explanatory; for practical reasons, cooking dinner for one was, in her mind, a waste of food and while the doctor in her protested the idea of takeout, the single mother in her had long since gotten use to the idea.

Saeko turned off the street and into a convenience store where for a modest fee; she could but a cheap, easily heated, but otherwise bland tasting – compared to the ones she and her daughter cooked – dinner in a Styrofoam box. The process didn't take any more than five minutes, but it none the less came as a surprise to her follower, whom had to overshoot the store once before ducking into an alley and changing identities once again. When Saeko failed to exit the building after three minutes; Vita took the opportunity to do something else other than change outfits.

"Colonel Vita?"

"Yes General" she reported "subject is in a small store called '7-11', on the main road, three blocks west of Shirokane station.

"So she is coming from the south east?"

"Yes sir, from Shirokane Station"

"Very good Colonel" the general said before disconnecting the call. No other words needed to spoken now.

Vita placed the phone back in her coat as she saw Saeko exit the store finally and continue her journey home. Once her subject had a half block head start, Vita crossed the street and continued to follow her.

* * *

Uranus hadn't really expected to go to battle today; thought from experience, she couldn't think of a single day since she became a senshi where she successfully predicted when a battle would take place and where. But as she often fantasized; if Uranus did have the same powers that Mars and Neptune mildly possessed; one obvious thing she would do is ensure that the entire Senshi troupe was there to stop the battle before it really started. Unfortunately, merely predicting where your enemy was only half the battle, the other half was defeating them; and with this one, it was proving difficult in a number of ways.

As much as Uranus had denied admitting to herself, this battle was hopeless. They had barely stopped the enemy from progressing further from their initial landing spot, but the battle was being fought in the worst sort of environment. Night time street combat was not something Uranus really enjoyed – not that she actually enjoyed fighting – since it gave the enemy more room and cover than she wished to give them. At the police station and the shopping center, it was enclosed, confined and to a certain degree; controllable. But on the street, where debris was already starting to pile up; there were just too many factors weighting against her and Pluto.

For one, they had yet to kill any of the cannon wielding robots that their enemy seemed to – thankfully in only small numbers – enjoy using, along with the slightly smaller blade-wielding ones. As much as Uranus just wanted to use her space sword and cut them up, the gun wielders had to be dealt with first; and already senshi-wide policy with dealing with their enemy. The problem though was finding them; painted black already, they were extremely had to see in the shadows and only the occasionally muzzle flash gave the senshi any sort of clue where they were.

Uranus looked up to try find her target again; but only took a few seconds before finding a muzzle flash. After gaining experience with them in two battles, both Uranus and Pluto didn't need to be told what to do when the other yelled.

"Move!" Uranus yelled before both of them jumped clear of the car she was hiding behind.

Her jump to the side came just moments before the upturned Toyota exploded into thousand pieces of razor sharp shrapnel. While Uranus's jumped went low and into the alleyway, Pluto's went high and only gave the second cannon armed robot a chance to shoot at living clay pigeons. The marksmanship of the robots she noted was improving, the first round only missed her by a foot; but the second one was blocked by her key staff.

Pluto yelled as she was ejected backwards by the force; but her acrobatic control on her decent insuring that she safely behind another alleyway corner twenty meters behind Uranus.

"You Okay!" Uranus shouted

"Just dandy" Pluto said as she dusted off the dirt and picked up her Key Staff. "How are the others?"

"No idea, I can't see them from here" Uranus looks a quick peek around the corner "and their pinned down just as badly.

One fairly big mistake was the way in which sailor Moon and sailor Mars approached the battle, incorrectly guessing the direction they were fighting; they had approached from there to back up their outer senshi counterparts. Instead of finding a pinned down Pluto and Uranus, they only found a wall of robots and a volley of tossed grenades from the same women who managed to escape their grasp last time.

"Still no idea about where Saturn and Neptune are?"

"No idea, their communicators aren't responding"

"What about Venus and Mercury?" Uranus cursed

"If they arrived by now, their more than likely on the other side with Moon and Mars"

"And Jupiter?"

"Not responding either"

"At least nine of us and we can't even stop them" Uranus cursed again

Pluto peeked around the corner again to try find the robots they wanted to kill. She tried hard to make them out by just the silhouettes cast by the petrol station fire that was now raging out of control. The fire suppression system there had long since given up in the struggle and the additional fires from abandoned cars only gave the senshi very little to work with. The only good thing that the senshi had managed to accomplish was boxing in their enemy and stopping them from achieving their...

Pluto stopped for a moment to think about that and then cursed herself wondering why she hadn't. She had been understandably distracted by the battle, but now she took some thought to it.

'what exactly is there to gain from all of this' Pluto asked herself 'they set fire to a gas station and just cause chaos…they haven't stolen anything, they haven't moved to another place, they aren't even trying to go on the offensive'

Pluto turned peeked around the corner again and noticed that the robots had just stopped marching and were turning to face her.

"Uranus heads up!" Pluto screamed

Uranus heard the warning, but like any human, instantly looked around at the danger for herself before noting the alarm she should've taken first. Already in an alley way, there was really nowhere else to run but to the other side of the street. Without thinking much about it, both senshi ran across the street just short of the time the respective corners they hid behind moments prior exploded. Uranus and Pluto ducked behind a minivan and prayed they hadn't been seen running to it. Five very long seconds passed before confirming their luck.

"Well, from my guess, there are only two of them" Pluto quipped "maybe a third one is hammering the others"

"We're not that lucky" Uranus sighed.

Before they continued to think further about their problem, Pluto's communicator chimed.

"Pluto here" she whispered "that you sailor moon"

"Yeah, you guys alright?"

"Just dandy" Uranus said "have Venus and Mercury shown up your end?"

"No" Mars started to speak "but I've got a plan; you've got two of those gun-bots right?"

"Yeah" Uranus ignored the bad news for a moment and listened to Mars.

"Okay…" Mars confirmed "I think I've got an idea on how to illuminate them"

"Sure what's that?"

"I'm going to shoot that minivan that's on its side, the fire from that will illuminate them from your direction" Mars replied

"Alright" Uranus sighed "Give us a second to get in position, we're going to have to spread out for this one to work"

"Alright, but I'm going to shoot in thirty seconds" Mars announced before her communicator went dead.

"Damn!" Uranus said "time to find new cover!"

Pluto overheard the entire thing and was already spotting a place she could jump to, the plan wordlessly agreed on would need them split up and expose themselves to the cannon fire; but it could work they knew.

"Ten seconds" Pluto noted as she finally spotted the place she was going to jump to

"Five seconds" Uranus spoke as she braced her self to jump.

At three seconds, they jumped as they heard the unmistakable noise of Mars firing off her flame sniper – the only thing she could use with some guaranteed accuracy – which as promised sailed past the enemy and impacted the minivan. The resulting explosion roiled the already heated air and almost caught Uranus and Pluto in the fireball; but both had timed their jumps well and within second seconds of their escape from the explosion were already 20 feet in the air sailing backwards, but not before both of them fired off incantations of their own.

The robots simple targeting system had already started to suspect the minivan as a possible hiding place when it exploded; but the slow refresh rate on the sensors didn't catch the two senshi jumping clear moments before. Confused in the way slow AI was; it didn't take the leap of imagination fast enough to look in all directions before two quite alive senshi aimed their attacks earthbound.

"Death…"

"Space Sword…"

The two of them had only a few seconds to find their targets, but their eyes hadn't failed them. Standing where they hoped to find them, the two senshi concentrated their attacks just in time to take proper aim.

"…Scream!"

"…Blaster!"

At that moment, a purple beam of light and a quartet of air-breaking slashes ripped through the sky and found their targets true. Uranus's attack – oddly the faster of the two – hit the first robot; cutting it off at the knees and elbows and making it harmless in seconds. Pluto's beam however was more devastating; having no really strong accuracy, Pluto's death scream repeated the mistake Mars's flame sniper at the police station. Just like before, the hot slug of infused magical power hit the elbow joint where the ammunition in the cannon armed robots met the gun itself.

The resulting explosion was one to admire for its size; in the confines of a building, it's hard to appreciate, but out in the open where all could see it, the explosion was something quite spectacular. Uranus and Pluto however hadn't touched the ground when the crushing pressure wave knocked them backwards and off their feet first landing. When Pluto and Uranus landed and eventually rolled to a stop; they had managed to be pushed back only an additional twenty meters. Knowing the threat was gone for the moment they didn't waste any effort in regaining that ground and finding cover.

Once they were behind cover and Pluto watched out for another cannon armed robot or their blade-wielding cousins; Uranus indulged her pent up rage and switched her communicator on.

* * *

The order to turn around was costing them time; both of them could have been at Tamada by now had the order to change direction not come through. They had both been worried about abandoning Uranus, but both of them were assured that it had been the judgment call by Neptune, mixed in the fact that it balanced out deployment of senshi to the two battles. Because of this confusion and the distance between the two sites; Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury were barely two thirds the way to their new objective when Venus's communicator started to chime.

"Who is it this time?" Artemis asked as the two of them stopped hear the communication, the answer; it came loudly enough.

"Where the hell are you!" Uranus yelled through the speakers "You were supposed to be here by now!"

"We're just crossing over into Shibuya-ku heading to…"

"You're going the wrong way!" Uranus screamed "Tamada is east, not west!"

Venus and Mercury weren't too surprised at Uranus's temper, but where surprised at the mixed messages. Venus tried again to explain

"We were heading to Neptune…she's got another group fighting her, Saturn and Jupiter at Ebisu…didn't anyone tell you?"

"That's the first I've heard of it!" Uranus cursed again before asking Pluto "you heard anything?"

Venus could almost hear Pluto shrugging through the communicator. Nobody spoke for five seconds, everyone stunned at the mismatch in communications.

"Whatever…" Uranus sighed "Venus, go ahead and help Neptune, Mercury, turn around and come back here as soon as you can"

"But what about the…"

"Neptune can handle that herself" Uranus snapped "I've got little miss pyromaniac blowing up everything she can lay hands on! Now get over here before she burns down half the distinct!"

"Understood, we'll split up now, Venus out"

Uranus merely spat before disconnecting; understandably she was angry.

"Alright, can you handle the trip by yourself?" Venus asked, really knowing Mercury didn't have a choice.

Mercury merely nodded before turning around, lamenting in her head about running across the district a second time. In a few seconds the two senshi wished each other good luck and ran off to their respective battles; both starting to wonder what was going on.

* * *

Neptune's battle wasn't going any better then her partner's, but Neptune at least had the benefit of confining the battle indoors. Having managed to accomplish that, Neptune and Saturn had joined up with Jupiter and managed to disable one of the lumbering cannon armed robots and three of the smaller blade wielders; but apart from that; Neptune had nearly the same problem as the other senshi in Tamada. Faced with the task of finding her enemy faster than they found the senshi; it had become a game of high explosive dodge ball. Whenever a senshi spotted just a robot, all of them fired off their incantations, hoping at least one would hit before the remaining two cannon-armed robots took aim and fired off a round.

What she really needed was Mercury to set off Shabon Spray and give her the chance to blind some of her enemies; but Neptune's mental clock told her that Venus and Mercury were still at least ten minutes away, judging by their location when she called in. Until they arrived; Jupiter and herself could only wait and take the occasional chance to reduce their enemy by one more. With not much else, Neptune picked up her communicator and check in with Saturn, pinned down a floor up.

"Saturn, how are you doing?"

"Just fine" Saturn replied "Any idea when our backup is coming?"

"No idea" Neptune replied before adding "they should be in the district by now…"

Jupiter saw from the other side of the mall's hallway what Neptune was doing and reached for her own communicator.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing Jupiter, I'm just checking in with Saturn…is something wrong?"

"Nothing wrong, but something is bothering me" Jupiter said "they haven't tried attacking us"

Neptune's response was unintelligible; as thought surprised at the question herself.

"Saturn, you see any of those robots still?" Jupiter asked her counterpart right above her.

Upstairs, Saturn looked around the corner slowly and spotted the blackish cannon-armed robot they had tried twice already to destroy. It was scanning, but it wasn't moving.

"Still there…can't see anything else though, that's the only one I can see"

Neptune mulled that information over and came to the same revelation that Pluto had come to before. Despite their tense battle, it really hadn't progressed further than moving indoors, and right now there was simply a stand off between three senshi and at least ten or more enemy robots, plus whatever leader they had. Worst still was the presence of their heavy guns which the senshi had to defeat first, but they hadn't even so much as fired a single extra shot to draw them out of hiding. By Neptune's reckoning, the enemy really had the upper hand and could have easily over run them before Jupiter arrived, but they had really been purposely playing their battle defensively; as thought to prolong the battle on purpose.

Then there was the additional fact that the enemy was fighting on two fronts. From what Saturn had relayed to her throughout the battle; Uranus and Pluto were battling it out with another group of enemy robots somewhere around Tamada station. Sailor Moon and Mars had responded to that one, along with Venus and Mercury before she redirected those two to help her. Either way; it halved their forces and in a way that disadvantaged both battles and still two senshi had not yet arrived on the scene because of the distance between Tamada and Ebisu.

"Hold on Jupiter" Neptune disconnected from the three way call and made another one.

* * *

Sailor Mercury had barely turned around before her communicator went off again. With a loud sigh, she again slowed down to a stop on top of a building. The constant interruption to her roof-hopping dash was starting to get a little annoying; already made to run across most of Minato district twice. being told to double back and help Neptune just added to the frustration. Given the distance she had to travel to get to Tamada; she really couldn't afford another distraction.

"Mercury here"

"It's Neptune, where are you two at the moment?" Neptune delivered in her calmest sounding tone.

"I'm heading back to Tamada" Mercury replied before quickly adding "but Venus should be with you any minute now…"

"What? What's going on?" Neptune asked with a slight hint of anger.

"Uranus says she needs me to put out a petrol station fire" Mercury replied, still surprised at the lapse in communication "but she let Venus go ahead….didn't Uranus tell you?"

"No, I can't seem to reach her…" Neptune replied before asking "…anyway, that's not why I called"

"What?" Mercury asked; she had started to dash with her communicator still on; the wind from the movement made things harder to hear.

"I said that's not why I called you!" Neptune repeated louder "something is wrong about this battle!"

"What do you mean?" Mercury stopped moving again, this time on a school building.

"The enemy hasn't done anything so far except fight us….they haven't taken hostages or anything…something isn't right here"

"Hang on, what are you talking about?" Mercury asked again

Neptune couldn't quite work out what she had going on in her mind and didn't want to make any guesses; but for some reason this battle had started to feel very suspicious. What she really needed to do was call someone at the other battle, but Neptune incorrectly guessed; if she couldn't get to Uranus, it was highly unlikely that the others could respond. All Neptune had was speculation and it wasn't the sort of hard information tactical decisions were made on.

Mercury on the other hand was started to crack under the frustration, she had asked herself a dozen times already about what was going on; but it was only until now she actually knew anything about the battles themselves – well at least something past her own speculation – besides their location. None the less; Mercury was the last senshi still not in combat and miles from her objective.

"Neptune, Uranus and the others need me, I can't delay any longer" Mercury replied bitterly "I could've been at either battle by now if I wasn't constantly changing direction!"

"Understood" Neptune sighed.

In a second, Neptune's face disappeared from the screen and it left Mercury with something else to think about now. Despite what she thought just before, the whole battle had really started to bother Mercury. Faced with not many facts herself, she resumes her course for Tamada, but along the way called someone else.

"Sailor mars you there?"

"Hey Mercury, you here yet?"

"No, I'm just crossing over to Minato district now"

"What?" Mars shouted "Where are you?"

Mercury briefly sighed and quickly summarized the situation so far regarding her and Venus. It only took half a minute, but in a battle it would tax the patience of anyone.

"Oh this is just great!" Mars complained "Just get over here"

"I'm doing my best" Mercury finally shouted back "but tell me something?"

"What?" Mars shouted

"Have the enemy moved anywhere?" Mercury continued in a softer tone.

Mars paused for a moment. She wanted to blow up at her friend for such a retarded question; but Mars had already been asking herself the same question several times since she arrived.

"No…" Mars said, masking her anger as much as she could "They're camped out with that pyromaniac from the police station…why?"

"Neptune just said the same thing about her battle…" Mercury said "Alright, I'll be with you as soon as I can!"

"Wait, but wha…" Mars tried to speak, but her voice was cut short by the pressing of the disconnect button.

Mercury judged she had spent enough time arguing to herself about the irregularity in the battle; her objective was to get to the battle in Tamada. Mercury jumped again and started to go as fast as she could; but even now the travel was starting to eat away at her energy. Despite all her training in endurance, there was only so much roof-hopping one could do before she had to slow down. After another kilometer, Mercury again stopped, this time on the ground in an empty park. As she took a moment to breath; her curiosity from before arose. Knowing she couldn't do much else for a minute or so, Mercury took turned on her visor to take another look at the situation.

With the aid of her computer, Mercury had scanned for all of the senshi's communicators and gotten a fix on their location. The map was fairly simple enough, being a very dull street map image of the scaled area of relevance; on the left was Ebisu station, where a Green, Purple and Aquamarine dot – with a golden one closing in – glowed in blob, and on the right was a place near Tamada station, where a White, Red, Dark blue and grey dot formed a second blob. Finally she saw herself, a light blue dot somewhere a two third of the way to Ebisu and one third the way to Tamada station.

Seeing the distance on screen made Mercury cringe at the distance she still had to go. From her house she could tell, she could have been at either battle by now, the distances were roughly the same and…why was that bothering her? Was it because of the distance she had run? Or was it because she had almost passed her house twice in the process of being called out for two battles?

"Something doesn't add up" Mercury thought aloud "Two battles, both really going nowhere…and I could have…"

Mercury wouldn't remember what gave her the idea in the first place, nor would she ever remember knowing what exactly tipped her off to think about the possibility. But upon reworking the information over in her head, her own paranoia started to make sense; something that irrational thought processes rarely accomplished. For a moment Mercury had dismissed it as stress from the moment and nothing else, but the lingering fact that it made perfect sense annoyed her. What finally tipped Mercury off however was the timing.

In her head, the math added up; from the moment the battle was first reported; only forty minutes had passed – despite what her legs were telling her – and that was just about enough time from her place to the station closest to…

"It couldn't be" Mercury repeated "It can't!"

But on the screen, she measured the distance between her house and the two battles; here was barely a 50 meter difference in direct length, it was too much of a coincidence to ignore. At once she thumbed her communicator to the only Senshi not in battle.

"Venus!"

"What is it Mercury" Venus asked in surprise.

"Turn around and head to my home, fast as you can!"

"But what about…" Venus tried to ask, not understanding the sudden change in her counterpart senshi's tone.

"Just do it!"

* * *

Whenever Saeko started walking into the quiet streets, she started to hum. It had been a trick of hers from since she started at the hospital and had to get use to the idea of walking alone on quiet streets after dark. This worked against her in some ways; since while her humming was designed to help her anxiety; it perversely made her less aware of her surroundings. Worse still was her institutional memory; while she did take the same route almost all of the time, Saeko didn't do so at a consistence time of the day. As a result, she didn't know right now that the person behind her were indeed stalking her, despite her disguise right now as a female convenience store clerk.

She had noticed her a few minutes ago and only looked back for a split second to see what the noise was. The person's appearance wasn't like what her many years of experience taught her to expect and so she didn't take note. What she had to worry about were teenagers out late, especially the rebellious ones that stayed out and looked for easy targets to harass. Saeko however knew from experience how to avoid them and they weren't as worrisome as muggers; who were rarely heard of in this part of Minato. She none the less didn't discount encountering them; Saeko knew her confidence wasn't a substitute for protection.

'Maybe I should really ask Ami about an escort home on late nights…' Saeko had asked herself again as she turned a corner.

There she saw another, another woman time sitting on a park bench with a newspaper on her lap. She couldn't tell from a distance where the young lady was looking, but Saeko for a moment swore she had been looking at the corner. Taking no note of it; Saeko continued on ahead, right by the person, humming softly a tune she had remembered took as long to sing as it took to get home. After Saeko and her following stranger passed the park bench, the woman stood up and become another follower.

Had Saeko not experienced years of this sort of behavior in the past; her anxiety alone would have set of alarm bells by now. But her experience also worked against her. Her humming drowned out the addition footsteps along with any other ambient noise. It took until she looked back again – something she did when she came up to the next corner – before the second person was noticed.

'Wasn't she sitting down?' Saeko asked herself, the first peculiar feeling in nerves finally started to itch.

Turning the corner, Saeko looked around again to find her and the other girl still on her trail. She couldn't vouch for the chances the convenience store clerk was taking the same route by chance, but both of them at the same time? That was when her second feelings and her first genuine warning sign started to go off. It was a subtle alarm though; her panic only exists for a second before her conscious experience took over and reminded her that even if they were stalking her, she was only another two hundred meters and a turn away from her home. Once she entered the Foyer, she was safe…stalkers she knew never went that far.

It was all she could do to ignore her followers, who by now were consciously speeding up their pace to get closer to their target. The noise they created wasn't exactly subtle however and Saeko noted it without turning her head; she was already thinking of the one on the park bench as a stalker and knew that once she turned corner she'd confirm it for sure. To Saeko; there was still the slight possibility that the stalker – whoever she was – was actually following the girl from the convenience store, and she had sped up to get away; it wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

Between the two of them, Saeko was the less attractive target compared the much younger stranger that had followed her from the main road.

'Okay, who is this stalker?' Saeko peered over her shoulder as she cleared the corner.

To her shock, the two women were now a lot closer than she had imaged and worse; were actually walking side by side now. The image in her mind almost triggered a full scale panic, but her intellect told her that she was only thirty meters away from safety. That was not to be. As Saeko focused her eyes forward on the entrance to the apartment complex; she saw sitting on the park bench opposite another women. Saeko couldn't help by keep her eyes transfixed on the woman and when she was within twenty metes of the door, the young lady on the park bench nodded and stood, indicating to someone who waited until she was ten meters from the door to exit the building she was about to enter.

He was a lot older than everyone else; but she none the less felt the aura of threat that he radiated. It was only then that her panic overtook her intellect; too late.

"Doctor Saeko Mizuno" he spoke in a low tone, almost sounding like an old man.

"Who are you?" she demanded loudly, turning to see the woman on the park bench approaching her

"That is none of your concern, would you please come with us?" he asked, in a gentler, but none the less threatening tone.

"No!" Saeko screamed as she turned to escape, she didn't make it too far when she saw the two persons pursing her blocking the exit. She hadn't noticed the uniforms the other two were wearing, but she noticed them suddenly when the convenience store girl suddenly transformed into a uniform identical to her counterpart stalker.

"Who are you?" Saeko repeated, hoping they would answer

She was surrounded and her only escape was blocked by an old man in command of three younger – but not to be mistaken for anything else – strong looking women. She tried to run but was grabbed by Colonel Rin.

"This will go a lot easier if you…" Colonel Vita advised before she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the ground being landed on.

"Stop right there!"

This got the attention of all five of them who instantly turned around and focused on the person who yelled. Standing there, posed to battle was Sailor Mercury; her computer visor still on and alone without backup. The serious posture however was worthless and Mercury knew it; all the visor was telling her was Venus wasn't going to make it in time to help her.

"Mercury!" the Colonels all replied in surprise

"Ami?" Saeko yelped in surprise.

The general smirked at hearing that. Everything he had planned had just pulled off and just by chance, Sailor Mercury had just arrived in time to aid in positively identifying their target; something that Colonel Vita had worried about. The irony was just fantastic and he couldn't help but ignore the chance.

"So very good to see you" The general curtly spoke "Your showing up does making sending the note a whole lot easier…but unfortunately I don't have the time to chat"

"You have plenty of time…" Mercury replied "…let her go!"

"I'm afraid we won't be doing that" the general replied "…we're in need of your mother"

"There is no room for negotiation!" she yelled.

The general could feel it in her tone, and along with guess at why the visor was out only made him more confident that she was just stalling for time; the other eight senshi were no doubt too far away to help.

"I'm sorry Mercury…no…Ami Mizuno…" the general replied as he waved his hand gesturing to her futility "…but there is plenty of room for negotiation, just not for now"

Sailor Mercury froze at hearing her civilian name spoken for the first time. It had happened before; but the feelings from those times didn't compare to the chilling feeling of vulnerability that she felt now.

"Then I have no choice…" Mercury spoke before she attempted to take them on alone. Her attempt was stopped short when the General simply used his magic to blast his opponent off her feet. The power of his attack along with close proximity guaranteed her inability to fend off the attack. Sailor Mercury was thrown backwards into a stone wall, where she was knocked out and slumped forward to the ground.

"We're done here" the general replied "Colonel Rin and Lin, teleport with our hostage"

"Yes general" both of them said as Lin took custody of Saeko's left arm while Rin retained a tight hold on her right arm.

"We're going to take a little trip" Rin spoke seductively before both of them turned their watches on and disappeared through the mini portal.

"Should we leave her there?" Colonel Vita said, gesturing to Mercury "we could just…"

"Not today…" the general said "with her mother, we can kill her whenever we want"

"Yes General"

The two of them took another quick sweep of the area to make sure nobody saw it – like it made much of a difference – before making their departure. When they were certain nobody had seen anything; both the general and Colonel pressed on their teleporting watches and disappeared, not knowing that only one of them would show up at the rally point.

* * *

The word to withdraw order came quickly. One of the first tasks Rin and Lin had been given when they arrived at the rally point was to call Colonel Soyuz and Denisa to tell them that the mission was successful.

"Well about time!" Denisa replied loudly, wondering if her trap had successfully gone off or not "Alright, I'm on my way"

She pressed the disconnect button on the phone and tossed into the fire; knowing it was now a liability instead of an asset. When the call came through, she had been looking for Sailor moon and whoever she was with in an attempt to drive them into the open and hopefully score a kill by chance; but Denisa hadn't been so lucky. She had followed the rules of the battle to the letter and hadn't done anything more than confuse and distract them awhile the general and his snatch party did the easy part of the mission.

"Alright, time to get out of here!" Denisa yelled at his remaining auto-troops.

Denisa had not done too badly; at the loss of only four, she did pretty well considering the fact she wasn't allowed to attack her enemy. Denisa had been annoyed about that restriction, but with Vita hopefully gone for good, maybe the general wouldn't receive such bad advice anymore. After making sure her Auto-troops had walked within a certain perimeter of herself. She – and they – all teleported out; watched on by the four thoroughly confused Senshi and the handful of civilians who had managed to see the whole battle unfold.

"They just left" Pluto said in awe, despite all common sense to the contrary, she walked out in the open to confirm it. Uranus; who was not as awed, managed to remain in place until she saw Pluto hadn't been attacked. When a few minutes passed, all four senshi finally met up.

"What's going on? Did they leave?" Mars asked

"I don't believe it…" Uranus said, despite having no evidence to doubt what she was seeing.

The fire as it was continued to rage and there was very little any of them could do; they needed Mercury for something like that, but with the battle apparently and suddenly over, they could settle on letting the fire department handle that one. Just as the thought occurred to Uranus, her communicator went off;

"What's going on Venus, why are you calling?" she calmly replied

"Neptune reports that the group of enemies she was fighting just vanished" Venus replied sounding panicked

Uranus cocked an eyebrow when the tone didn't match the message she had heard.

"Then what…" Uranus asked before she was cut off

"We've got a new problem"

* * *

_Author's commentary: This battle was one I hadn't really though about until I actually wrote it, I had written in the draft that it would happen, but I did quite think about the dynamics until i got here. Research for this was cookbook simple, though if anyone out has a map and a good understanding of Tokyo or Sailor moon, I would imagine he or she might be a tad angry with me right now._

_If I had better writing skills, apart the lower number of errors i imagine dominate this story, i probably would have done a better job leading up to this whole battle. The balance between obvious and unlikely is harder than most would imagine._


	17. Chapter 16: Disclosures and Revelations

**Chapter 16: Disclosures and Revelations**

The rally point was a discreet warehouse fairly convenient for their needs; it wasn't far from their actual battles and it aided in their escape far better than just going back to the hideout. It had been both a technical and tactical necessity; first to compensate for their give away teleporting signatures and second to make sure they had snatched the right person. For the latter, the general didn't even need to worry about the confirmation process anymore; Sailor Mercury – or Ami Mizuno as she went by in civilian form – after all had just provided all the proof he needed. However for the former…

"Still no sign of her?" the general asked as he kept his eyes on their hostage

"None" Soyuz replied quietly "if Colonel Vita merely teleported to the wrong place, we would've gotten a reply over her handset by now" he gestured to the black telecommunication brick in his hand.

"Alternatives?" The general asked, knowing that in a minute he would have to make a choice.

He was accustomed to loosing people in combat; in great battles he had come to expect it, but in a case like this? As the whole mission had progressed, he knew inside that this mission had been going far too well for them to not get away with a single error; but he had been anticipating for a different kind of error. For a moment, he felt the appearance of Mercury was the one error; but that wasn't really a problem as much as Denisa and Soyuz felt it to be. Both attack parties performed flawlessly as distractions, drawing away every senshi while the snatch party did the real mission.

The surveillance from the hospital to just outside the home had gone off without a single problem; Vita's disguises having not once tipped off their subject – now hostage – until it was too late for her to escape. Everything had gone off without a hitch; not one misplaced step, minimal losses of auto-troops and a successful mission…and now it seemed that only now was the price of the mission being disclosed to those conducting it.

"What's the more likely of the two outcomes…" the general asked again, just to hear from others before he made a choice.

"Well, if it's her battery…" Soyuz answered "Colonel Vita would've landed somewhere on the planet, but that could mean in ice or even in the earth itself…in both cases she is dead"

"The other alterative?"

"If it was the metronome hammer failing to recharge the watch…colonel Vita would end up the space-time hall…and there is only one way to get out of that"

"Help from a senshi with time manipulation powers…" the general breathed "…then she may as well be dead"

"So what are we going to do? We can't hang around here forever…" Denisa pointed out, with the tone one reserved for describing a neighbor's dead cat.

As much as the comment enraged the general for his insincerity to the loss of a fellow officer, Denisa had a point. Their mission was successful, their objective done and the more time they spent at this rally point, the more time they were loosing in their escape from here. None of colonels discounted the possibility that their enemy might have figured out where they teleported to by now and the general knew that successful missions could still fail after the conclusion if their retreat was not properly handled. More importantly; before them was their prize for this evening, the mother of Sailor mercury and the key to a lot more than just that if tonight's gamble paid off.

Through it all, the loss of his remaining intelligence officer – and the end of the Azreal School of espionage – might just be the fair exchange for the chance to bypass the steps they had taken so far and obliterate the senshi in direct attacks, just as Denisa had been craving to do. If Vita's life had to be given for the treasure of information that Saeko Mizuno had in her mind, then…

"If Vita is indeed alive, she'll contact us soon enough" the general announced to his people "in the meantime, the mission needs to go on…sacrifices cannot be made in vain for the sake of personalities"

"Yes general…" Soyuz replied, knowing the hard truth in his general's words.

"Yes Sir!" Denisa replied, again ignoring the feelings that the others had for their fallen comrade.

Soyuz almost reacted angrily to the completely heartless attitude Denisa had for the apparent death of Vita. It wasn't news to him that she hated Vita – for what possible reason was a mystery to him – and Denisa's feelings for the older Azreal wasn't exactly unknown to everyone. But what felt alarming to Soyuz at that moment he realized a second later; was the eerie parallel to the almost blatant and insensitive tone Denisa had used to describe the demise of the late Colonel Azreal at the police station. It was a very big consideration that crossed his mind and it stuck to his conscious mind, even as he buried his thoughts for later edification and reflection.

Through it all, Saeko sat in the chair, tied up and already wondering what sort of dream this might be and if she had accidently taken an illicit drug at work by mistake. The attempt at distracting herself from reality didn't work, and the only thing Saeko could do then was listen to what was going on. If it distracted her from the pain in her twisted arm and the sick feeling of teleporting for the first time; then it worked wonders. To her surprise the enemy spoke her language and soon she had a vague grasp of what was going on.

To her surprise, the enemies were well…human; as if they were born on earth and lived here. Often as much, people commonly mistook the appearance of the enemies the senshi fought as aliens or monsters – or just about anything the imagine thought up – but Saeko was surprised to learn this might not be the case at all. They all wore uniforms, dark purple to black; with silver or gold bands and very little insignia. Even with her mundanely, Saeko had slowly worked out who was in charge.

The man with the daggers and simple but effective belt with grenade like glass bottles was someone called Soyuz. In another context and setting; he would've come across as a really mysterious looking gentlemen or maybe a police detective. The women next to her was hard to mistake…her name was Denisa and wore a nearly identical uniform; but with far more weapons. Her red hair accentuated her appearance; a tough warrior type who didn't think much for this missing person they were talking about.

And of course there was the old man; the one who pushed her daughter aside like nothing – after briefly mocking her – and who no doubt led this troupe of soldiers into battle tonight. He was called 'general', nothing else. He looked old, tired and clearly the veteran of his profession; but he clearly listened to his 'colonels' as one senior doctor would listen to a junior one. Saeko had almost forgotten about the danger she was in until they focused their attention on her again.

"So this is the person we came to get?" Denisa asked disgusted

"That's correct"

"Doesn't look like the mother of a senshi…" Denisa spat to the floor.

"Well she is, and thanks to her gaff…we don't need to double check" the general said.

He finally walked forward, the general had been keeping attention on her the entire time just to see how alert she was, and already he was impressed with how calmly this Saeko Mizuno was taking the situation.

"I take it you've been listening…" the general said harshly

It took all her strength to not make her reply sound broken.

"Yes…" Saeko replied, knowing that a lie wasn't the right thing to do now.

The general smirked for a microsecond when he heard her.

"You don't want to ever lie to me…" he warned softly. As he spoke, he brought his combat knife out and gently caressed its blade on the right side of Saeko's neck. The chilling effect alone scared his hostage stiff. "…if you do, I'll have to reconsider the value of keeping you"

In one brief second, he grabbed a strand of her hair and cut it off with the knife. It wasn't a lot; but it was enough for the general's purposes. Once he had accomplished the task, he turned to his remaining officers.

"Prepare the portal for our movement" the general ordered "We're leaving this place"

"Yes Sir!" the four colonels spoke.

* * *

It took time to assemble everyone and it was almost an hour before all the senshi and the cats had discreetly gathered inside Ami's apartment. At first, word about what had happened just outside Mercury's apartment took time to get out. Venus – being the only other person not in combat – had arrived on the scene first, and because of that was the first to discover Mercury knocked out. It didn't take many words to convince everyone to converge on the location, what they would learn from Mercury only made the news worse. Sitting and standing around the coffee table; the nine senshi looked grim as Mercury related her story. Describing in detail the enemy and how easily they had kidnapped her mother.

After further examination of the data on her micro-computer, the objective that their enemy had achieved became clear. Even more than that, they had beaten the senshi at their own game; the enemy defeated their practice, training and year and a half of planning for every possibly contingency…which right now only made their chief tactician feel even more ashamed at herself. Not only had Mercury failed to anticipate something like this from happening; but she now had to grasp at the fact that it came at the price of her mother's safety.

None of them knew what to say; Uranus and Neptune wanted to say something, but now was not the time to point out that this was the very reason why Saeko Mizuno should have been kept in the dark. Sailor moon sat next to her friend wondering what to say, how to say it and if she should say it; those thoughts were replicated by the other inner senshi. Saturn sitting opposite didn't know what to say, but argued inside about hugging her fellow senshi… as though psychical contact in the form of comfort would make a difference right now.

Only Pluto knew what to say at this moment, if anything because she knew that sitting here and doing nothing wasn't going to do anything more than waste time. In the silence that invaded their discussion of what had happened; Pluto quickly worked out the details in head; the story and information that Mercury provided so far was useful information, but there was something nobody had asked yet.

"Did you get a good look at the enemy?"

Mercury was silent for a minute. To her; she knew it was time to ignore the grief she had caused herself and to focus on the problem at hand. As much as wanted to turn to her blond haired friend and cry into her shoulder, now was really not the time for it.

"Not really, but they look familiar…no names…just their looks"

"Can you describe them?"

"I can do one better…" Mercury said, finally regaining her composure as the conversation started again "…I might be able to show you"

"Huh?"

Mercury tapped her ear ring and activated her visor again; that done she picked up her micro computer and started scanning the video for the right moment to start from.

"When I knew that help might not come…I turned on my visor to record what I saw…just in case"

"Your visor?" Venus repeated, for only a second wondering for a moment what Mercury was talking about. When the second past, the memory of finding Mercury with her visor left on – usually it was a distraction according to her – suddenly made more sense.

"That's awfully…" Uranus started before stopping, saying it was smart didn't seem to be the right thing for the moment.

When Mercury finished scanning, she turned the miniature screen around to face the others and pressed the hologram display function. All of them huddled together to watch.

"This is…" Neptune started before watching quietly.

The video quality wasn't the greatest, almost like a bad television reception with no sound; but it showed what transpired. From the moment Mercury jumped the last building to the moment they disappeared – even as Mercury lay on her side knocked out – the screen kept playing, showing how they had escaped. When the video finished, Mercury stopped it before her visor displayed the arrival of Venus in her failed attempt to back her up. This done, she slumped down and almost lost it.

"…it's really my fault, if I had just arrived a few minutes…"

It felt almost unreal to watch a replay of your own vision; worse that the visions weren't your best moments you wanted to share. For Mercury, reliving the experience of being knocked out so easily by the enemy and seeing her mother again so helpless…she couldn't help but…

"Shut it!" Uranus yelled, before speaking softer "…there was nothing you could have done…"

The shock effect of Uranus's words were felt just Mercury also felt two of her fellow senshi hug her, to her left Sailor moon and to her right Saturn; both deciding that words couldn't express their feelings. All around the feelings of the other senshi were the same; none of them saw it as her fault – if anything they were the blame – but they couldn't help but feel for Mercury's emotional weight at the moment.

"Disregard what happened…" Pluto continued and looked to Uranus for approval "…you did get us some important information"

The other senshi nodded. Most of them saw the uniforms that the quartet of enemy were wearing and almost instantly recognized the pattern. For Uranus, Neptune and Saturn, they didn't have the vaguest clue what the uniforms meant; but for the cats and Pluto, Jupiter, Mars, Moon, Venus and Mercury, they had fresh memories from both of their reincarnations.

"Artemis, Luna…" Pluto then asked "Are you getting the same impression I'm getting?"

Neither needed to be told what impression they were suppose be referring to.

"I know that it looks like it…but…" Luna started to speak

The dark purple and black with braded stripes of gold and silver color could only mean one thing. All of them were silent again; not wanting to say it, themselves but eventually Artemis; having studied the design and having the best memory; stepped up to speak.

"It's the Dark kingdom…"

And at once the conversation burst into action.

"But that's impossible" Mars replied at once "we defeated them…"

"Well those people are wearing the uniforms…" Pluto replied honestly "and I don't think anyone would go out of their there way to imitate a dead enemy"

"Some might…" Neptune suggested "they have imitated us…"

"Not the same as this…" Venus rebutted "but these…those three uniforms I can't remember…but the old guy….that's definitely a dark kingdom uniform"

"Those three are colonels…" Artemis informed his mistress "Silver was Colonel, Gold was general…and the Shitennou…Beryl's chosen generals… all had custom colors"

"That I remember…" Sailor moon nodded soberly "but how do we confirm it?"

And just like it had started, the conversation ceased again. Everyone thought about it carefully, thinking of possible explanations and getting nothing in return. None of them were expecting dark kingdom personal to be around; it just didn't make sense. For Pluto; her mind raced at the possibility, her memory – being the best out of everyone on the subject – started to scan for possible clues they could look for in confirming the subject. Replaying the video in her heard, it took her all of a few minutes to realize that she had missed something.

"Mercury…can you bring up the last minute of that footage?"

"I can, but…"

"Just do it" Pluto asked "I want to look for something"

Mercury replied as she flipped open the micro-computer. In a few seconds the hologram screen returned and the video played again. Standing on the side of the screen – a rather odd thing to see from this angle – the three colonels, the general and Mercury's mother were visible. They talked for a moment until…

"Stop it there" Pluto commanded

And the screen paused.

"Those uniforms are dark kingdom…" Venus finally admitted "…even I remember those colors now"

"But there…" Pluto pointed "and there…those things on their hands…"

If Artemis were a human at that moment, he would've slapped himself for not seeing it before. Strapped the hands of all three colonels and the general were watches that at once reopened volumes of memories from long ago. Artemis wasn't stupid – despite what Luna thought of him – but even he had lapses in memory; but seeing the watch at once confirmed his suspicions.

"Teleporting watches…" Artemis started to speak "that confirms it then…"

Pluto nodded as the white cat caught up to Pluto's brain spark; if they were dark kingdom colonels, then the watches were all the proof she needed. But if they were dark kingdom; then what did that mean? Pluto wasn't sure for a moment as she examined the idea in her mind silently, adding the knowledge she had at her disposal and calculating the possibilities that came out.

"So we're dealing with the kingdom again…" Jupiter spoke up, annoyed at the confirmation "…but if Beryl's dead…who these guys are?"

"…odds are just some rouge faction people…" Pluto paused to answer, and continued to examine the data.

"Probably…" Mars added on her own.

Through it all, Mercury remained unusually quiet with Saturn and Moon weighing her down on the couch – except to use her micro-computer – as though to blanket her. In plain clothes, it would've been somewhat more comfortable, but so far none of them had returned to their civilian forms. The result was the odd feeling of chest plates pressed against each other and the plastic shoulder tips prodding into bodies. Mercury listened on however; knowing as minutes passed so did their chances to save her mother. When her own mind had finished thinking through the information on hand, Mercury spoke to the logical conclusion that came to her first.

"Even if we know who it is, how can we track them down?"

Silence again, but this time Pluto – having mulled it over in her brain – knew the answer.

"That might be easier than you think…"

* * *

Saeko wasn't quite sure if there was a safety advisory on travelling through teleports so many times a day; but she was certain that there should be one. After travelling twice through them, she was already sick to the stomach with vertigo and her body let the whole world know by expelling the aforementioned body part's contents followed by passing out on the floor. This sudden bout of illness had caught the instant attention of the captors she had found herself with, all – except one of the number – not wanting to see her die before she was useful to them.

Saeko couldn't tell where they were when she finally woke up, but by the surroundings she was in; there was some unsure speculation that they were still in the same county. The room she found herself in looked too much like a hot springs hotel room than the castle dungeon or something else she had expected to wake up in; but that for the moment seemed the least of her worries. When Saeko woke up, she found herself in a chair, tied to it at the feet and her hands bound. More importantly, as she came to realize; there were three people standing in the room; clearly remembered in her short term memory as people who Saeko didn't want to make angry.

It is hard to describe the feelings of being kidnapped; worse since such experiences are not universally applicable to everyone who undergoes such an ordeal. In the case of Saeko, when she finally came around; there were more than just the simple feelings of panic and confusion racing in her brain. Knowing from their obvious display of weaponry that she'd have virtually no chance of beating them – even if she was trained to fight – Saeko resigned to the fact that she had no other choice but to cooperate.

Her mind was still being affected from the hangover that came from vertigo, but Saeko made the effort to quick ascertain her situation, much to her painful mistake. For a person who best applied herself to taking in formation and processing it; her hangover intoxicated brain overloaded instantly with things to process and it only unsettled her stomach again as Saeko finally started to regain focus in her eyes. Among the things she first noticed was the old man, standing over here while holding something small in his hands.

The movement of her head caught his notice and be briefly turned his attention away from the item he had been looking at just before and spoke

"You're finally awake…"

Saeko merely nodded after discovering her voice was a still feeling sore after the convulsion. The crocking voice she initially tried wasn't left unnoticed by the general.

"Soyuz, get her some water"

At once, the person Saeko noticed leaning against the window frame stood and retrieved a mug with water from the table just to her left. While her hands were bound; they were done so in a way where she could still use them, in the context of hostage taking this was considered a dumb move, but all of her captives were easily assured of their ability to subdue any resistance from her; simply intimidation alone prevented Saeko from even trying. She received the mug of water and after looking at its contents, took a sip.

"Feeling any better?" Soyuz asked

Saeko nodded her replied as she held the mug between her now tied hands. She really didn't know what to make of the situation; but from her selective memory from fiction novels, the notional bad guy didn't treat you with care. The care she received ended when she finished with the mug and the man that gave her the mug took it away. Once done with his minor fuction, the man returned to where he had been standing against, like the assistant he appeared to be at the moment.

Then Saeko's attention turned back to the man whom she just noticed glance up at her again before returning his gaze to the item he was holding. It felt odd in a sense; to not know why since he had done so before she recalled back in that warehouse, but now he apparently he was doing it again. Before he spoke again however; he turned the item he was holding around, relieving to Saeko that it was her wallet.

"The resemblance is almost uncanny…" the general started to speak in a soft, an almost enthralling tone "had it not been for your daughter's sudden arrival…I would have almost mistaken you for Sailor Mercury…"

Saeko's eyes focused on the wallet and correctly guessed at what he was referring to. Inside she always kept a fairly recent picture – like any mother did – of her Ami; while others had commented in the past at how similar the two looked, right now the observation the old man had made really didn't illicit those same feelings. Given what he had just said, Saeko couldn't understand why she was chosen over the real article.

"Then what do you want with me…what do you…" Saeko started to complain, but was stopped by silent gesture from the old man's that abated her argument.

His reaction to her words changed the mood for the moment as he contemplated why she failed to react the way he had predicted. The general noted that if his captive was seriously aware of what was going on; she would have reacted differently, already knowing already she was selected as a hostage and react accordingly. In a moment he realized it didn't really matter and he continued on with his introduction.

"You are not in the position to demand for answers…" the general declared before continuing to check if her first response was a fluke"…though I imagine you already know why"

Saeko's reply came less from her own understanding of her present circumstances and more from the lingering inability to understand what was going on to begin with.

"Know what?"

The general was unimpressed with the answer and the resulting first direct eye to eye contact between both of them tried to read the other's mind. For Saeko it was impossible to work out what the old man wanted from her or what he was thinking. For the general; it was a far different problem; while Saeko didn't even attempt to deny her knowledge of her daughter's identity, she didn't seem to know why she was his hostage at all. It was not all that surprising that her hostage might already be trying to confuse him with lies; but the sincerity in her voice told him something else.

"Do you even know why you are here?" the general inquired, sounding somewhat ashen at the possibility that she knew nothing.

"I was hoping you'd tell me…" Saeko replied, somewhat unsure where this conversation with Ami's supposed enemies was going.

The general couldn't decide if it was on purpose or if she really didn't seem to understand what was going on. If he were more skilled in the art of interrogation, the subtleties of her tone and how she responded would have been able to tell him if she was lying or not. But without either of his – now mortally challenged – intelligence officers to aid him, the general could only rely on his instincts to guide him. When he felt there was no way around the issue; he decided to indulge her curiosity anyway, if anything to test her knowledge on the subject.

"Then allow me to explain…" the general started gently "Put simply… me and my people are in a little conflict…with the organization that your daughter works for…and because of your unique position in this affair… I have been forced to take you prisoner"

Saeko remained quiet, feeling quite like a child who just had a two syllable word spelled out to her. Ignoring the indignity of the way the general had phrased the situation to her, Saeko went on to further clarify something she didn't understand.

"…organization? The sailor senshi?"

The general paused again; wondering if he was just imagining it. Even after explaining as clearly as possible; could she still be as absent minded as she appeared to be, or was she performing a rather clever act of denial? What worried the general was of two possibilities; if she was as ill-informed on the subject, then what did value would her information be? But if this woman was hiding the information in pretend ignorance, would she be so willing – despite her apparent inexperience in affairs – be willing to suffer for it?

"No…" the general repeated, starting to get frustrated "I mean the moon kingdom…didn't you know this? Didn't your daughter ever tell you about who she works for?"

"I don't even know what you're talking about…" Saeko started to hesitate before adding in a brittle tone "the only thing I know is my daughter is Sailor Mercury…I don't even know who the other senshi are"

What she said was a mistake, even before the words left her mouth, she was unable to pause her lips; worse, it even showed it in her eyes. Worst of all, the general saw it and with the further information he had at his disposal, he knew that she had finally made a mistake. If the distinct change in tone told him that she was hiding something, the memory of the footage that showed her with Sailor Venus in civilian form confirmed she had been lying.

"Do not insult my intelligence…" the general murmured humorlessly before making his case "…Colonel Soyuz, the orb if you please"

By the time Saeko had worked out what she had said to tip them off; she witnessed the man sitting by the window sill produce a floating ball of purple glass and made it project a pair of images in the air. Through with the quality of a bad photograph; it clearly illustrated the point the general was about to make.

"…if you claim to know nothing about other senshi…then maybe you can explain these pictures from a few days ago…"

"This is…" Saeko paused, her mouth wide open like a hooked fish.

The pictures spoke a thousand honest, undeniable words. In the former picture; they were outside the lift entering on the third floor, and in the latter picture; it showed Mercury and Venus exiting on the first floor. There was no denying the connection of events and no possible explanation to how Saeko couldn't have explained it away. With the ashamed truth undeniable, the general closed to within inches of her face and gave her another subtle warning.

"I thought I told you not to lie to me…" the general cursed in the lowest verbal tone "…don't do it again"

And with that, the fear that had been riding the edges of her panic finally came up in Saeko's mind and caused her second anxiety attack of the night. There was no doubt now how serious the situation was, and was now starting to understand why she was the one they wanted. She was the mother of one senshi, and they just revealed to her; quite possibly knew the identities of more than just one; it was suddenly to emerge in her mind how dangerous knowing that information could be. With the damage done, she could only look at the old man as he returned to his original distance from her face.

The general had thoughts of his own to consider even as he stepped back. First he felt to congratulate her for performance so far and his own ability to find a flaw in her defense. But deeper inside, he also came away from the exercise so far distracted by the nature of her testimony. He knew all too well that the subtle change in tone that signaled more than just the opening he had been waiting for. It so seemed strange to him that she would know the names of the senshi, but nothing about the moon kingdom; but from what he had seen so far, this was apparently the case.

A liar almost never changed tone half way through a single sentence and rarely did one so obviously involved come across as so honestly…uninformed. It was something to consider he realized; just how much did she know about her daughter's identity…and to that effect, how had she been told? The general wasn't quite sure how this would effect the eventual outcome of the interrogation or the reliability of the information they might get; but he assured himself – while looking over to Soyuz again – that this probably wouldn't matter; in the end, were always ways of making them talk.

'Disregard what you think of me…and whatever your feelings are for them…either way…I have ways of finding out what you know'

* * *

Despite their initial setbacks from this evening; the sailor senshi were not determined to let the victors of their battle leave without a rematch. The break came after Pluto's answer – and the elaboration – for Mercury's question. After long experience with teleporting; for which Pluto had understandable experience in the science of, she helped explain the idea that had come up in her head. After only taking five minutes to confirm the data; the other senshi were all convinced. As Pluto had expected, if these people were dark kingdom and subsequently using their native technology; then the methods used to track their movements were in reality far simpler than they could have hoped.

But there was a problem however that; there was only one way to detect the temporal signature accurately and it was in the garnet staff that Pluto wielded. Even thought the senshi – or even Sailor Mars's personnel abilities – could try using their own senses in the open air; only her staff was capable of identifying the right particles of temporal residue and the direction in which the teleport had intended to go. Worse still was that checking the signatures outside Mercury's home wouldn't be sufficient for the task, as Pluto explained, teleportation tracking was a science not far removed from triangulating radio signals for finding a transmitter.

For this particular reason, they would have to revisit the other two battle scenes from tonight and repeat the process again; which guaranteed to take all night. It wasn't the sort of news that didn't illicit the kind of hopes for success that the senshi were use to expecting, but they all eventually accepted the situation they were dealt with. For all of them, it meant a very long night ahead; but for Mercury – who could do nothing – it would feel like an eternity of waiting.

Mercury, despite being the one most affected by this – and as a result the most eager to do something – had reluctantly, after strongly protesting, agreed to stay at her home. It had been argued, first by Uranus and then by Pluto that there was really nothing she could do; even with her abilities for computing data, the nature of the task they were doing negated the need for that ability. The raw information alone would point to the hideout and only Mars's and Neptune's marginally useful senses and Pluto's Garnet staff were sufficient for the task; for everyone else, they had to wait.

This also meant Sailor moon and Venus were ordered to go home; not due to their need for sleep as well, but as Uranus put it politely; to insure – in light of Mercury's mother being captured – that no other family members got involved in this matter. It was an artful reminder that both were supposed to be home hours ago, and even with the useful excuse that tonight's events provided, both blondes had a place the needed to be. Both reluctantly agreed; but only after settling on donating their cats in the aid to their search.

This left only Jupiter and Saturn, who both decided to stay with Mercury for now. Neither had the problem of having family to return to; but in light of their equal lack of capabilities in searching for temporal signatures, they really wasn't much else for them to do and delegated to the task of resting for the impending rescue mission. For the former, it was to keep the host – and her close friend – company but for the latter, it was the simple reality that came with having stamina much less robust as her much older counterparts.

Saturn hadn't even been able to return to civilian form before she fell asleep; it was yet another complication for the young girl who had been given space on Mercury's bed to sleep. For her own reasons, mainly to do with guilt; it didn't feel right to occupy her mother's bed with herself or anyone else. And so; Jupiter, being both older and use to less comfortable accommodations; transformed back and napped on the couch in the living room while Mercury, out of a reluctance to sleep in – or even move Saturn onto – her mother's bed; transformed back and joined the fellow senshi on her bed.

Even though both of them could comfortably fit on her bed; that was not to say that Ami would get restful sleep; the events of the night and their immediate implications were insured to haunt her, even as she slipped into the realm of sleep. Like a few nights before, Ami's struggle to sleep was made worse by the very real worries that invaded her dreams. Thoughts about how her mother was doing and why she had been captured at all constantly repeated themselves well into the early hours of the morning and just like the time during her brief stay at Rei's temple; the thoughts proved too overwhelming for sleep.

After a bare three hours of broken sleep and nightmare thoughts; ami gave up the challenge and arose from her bed; leaving Saturn – blissfully able to sleep in any situation – to occupy the bed alone. Knowing she would not be any better off until she had considered the questions that had repeated in her mind; Ami struggled to her feet and made her way to her desk. Flipping on the lamp, before promptly redirecting its glaze away from her sleeping counterpart; Ami sat down and pulled out a notepad and started to arrange her thoughts on paper.

Ami commonly admitted that she did her best thinking when the facts were arranged in front of her for her eyes to see and this is what she did; on a blank page, she started to write down everything she could think about the last week. This amounted to three battles – which were divided into three columns – and the details of each battle. It didn't take very long however before Ami found herself pausing as she noticed something missing from her information. She had the number of robots and the locations…but when she wrote down the target for the most recent battle, it took Ami a minute of looking all her notes before she realized something off.

Of all three battles, only the most recent one seemed to have an objective – that was obvious by the way the battle had been staged – and in a moment Ami found herself asking an identical question to the personal one of guilt that her sleep had been repeating. With the absence of objectives in the first two battles, why or more accurately, how did her mother become the objective in their most recent action? Ami remembered back to the battle the night before for clues and when her memory failed her, she pulled her micro-computer out and watched again.

'Why didn't I realize this before…'

Watching it again; Ami realized a couple of things – even without sound – that should've seemed obvious to her before. It seemed only now that Ami noticed that not only did the enemy know her and her mother's names, but they knew where they lived and even roughly when her mother would be getting home for work; something Ami had constant trouble with knowing herself. In hindsight Ami started to realize; it spoke volumes of how organized their enemy was for their flight last night, from the beginning they had planned for those two battles to just be distractions, long enough to draw away any senshi from near her home and…

'But for our communications disaster…I might have not even encountered them' Ami realized at once 'In which case…we wouldn't have known until…'

But these thoughts weren't getting her anywhere; instead they were drawing Ami away from the original question. Shaking off the impending depression at that revelation, Ami thought about it again. First off, how did they know her mother at all? Second, how did they learn about where she worked and where she lived? And finally, why kidnap her instead of…herself?

'Okay...think Ami…if your mother wasn't seen at the first battle…we destroyed those robots before we escaped…' Ami tapped the pen on the details around their first encounter, '…and she wasn't even at the second battle…she was at the hospital…'

Her mother was present at the first one, but absent at the second; which meant the only chance they had to see her mother was at the first battle. But Ami knew that was impossible simply because of the fact her mother had been confined to an elevator box with Artemis – and he certainly didn't report any enemies – and at no point did she see the enemy herself. So if they hadn't seen her mother at all, then how did they know what to look for? Ami stopped tapping her pen at that thought when she came to looking at the for the second battle again at the police station.

Ami knew she was missing an important clue just then, something that made the whole point of the second battle relevant and linked the first and third battles together. The whole siege at the police station didn't make sense in the context Ami was thinking of; and so the actual reason for going there was completely unknown to her and she hadn't had the luxury of the last few days to find out why. In hindsight Ami knew; if it weren't for the falling out with her mother; she might have worked that out by now.

The Police station seemed to connect everything together; which was annoying since she didn't know why. All Ami could do was hunch over and groan at the strain of working out the thoughts that had prompted her to try piece together this mystery.

"You know hunching over like that is going to give you a bad neck and a bad back…" a voice softly whispered, in deference to the sleeping pre-teen still sound asleep.

Ami turned around to see Makato standing by the door, newspaper in hand and her other arm leading against the frame. She looked tired, evidently giving up on rest just as Ami had.

"Couldn't sleep…I started reading the paper…then I heard you scribbling on something" Makoto stepped inside, quietly approaching her friend.

Ami merely nodded before turning to face her desk again and continue her problem, without verbal consent needed now, Makoto simply walked up and looked over Ami's left shoulder to see what it was she had been doing. Makoto read fast and judged by the pen marks and Ami's continued tapping where she had her concerns laid on.

"The police station raid?"

"It seems to links everything…but it doesn't make sense…" Ami replied whisper "If they didn't see my mother during the first battle…and she wasn't even at this one… how did they work out what she looks like, her name, address and my real name…all by the time she got home tonight?"

Makoto didn't know any of those answers, and didn't contest a guess at answering them. Instead she put down the newspaper she had been reading and the hands on Ami's shoulders. The pressure felt from her move was felt and for a microsecond vexed Ami as to why her friend had done that. Before Ami could ask what she was doing; Makoto started to press her thumbs into Ami's back and slowly excited the tension in her back muscles in a clockwise rotation.

"It'll come to you..." is all Makoto could say, knowing really what Ami needed now was to calm down and take things more slowly.

Even if Makoto couldn't read her mind; she could feel the tension in Ami's back as she tried to resolve her many unanswered questions. The strain in her back muscles came from when the brain tightened everything in a natural process that came from lengthy periods of mental exertion; and Ami was no stranger to that form of stress. Makoto had long experience with Ami's often tight back and just as often found Ami like this. This was such a time again and while Makoto couldn't provide much help in finding the missing clue she was looking for, she still tried to help in other ways.

When she realized what her friend was doing, Ami closed her eyes briefly and embraced the feeling. Her skin tingled at the sensation; pulses of feelings were sent to her brain about her upper back and lower neck being tenderized and it resulted in briefly flushing out the problems Ami was thinking about. After having expelled the thoughts that kept her awake for a brief moment however; Ami suddenly found herself drifting off for, only caught by her conscious effort to stay awake. Ami once again lamented that Makoto's hands were a magic of their own sometimes before she gathered her thoughts again.

When Ami finally opened her eyes to continue her thought process from before, her head had nodded over in the direction of where Makoto had placed the newspaper. While she didn't see it straight away, the one phrase she saw suddenly seemed to pop into her attention as though by magic.

'Stolen police records?' Ami's mind almost jolted that the though before asking aloud "Hey Makoto, what is this?"

Makoto actually felt the tension return, something she didn't think was possible to feel. Before she had the chance to wonder what had caught Ami's attention however, her friend had taken the newspaper and unfolded it to the article that she herself had been reading before with fanned interest. After the momentary lapse of looking for the article again; Ami sighted her eyes on the story that had interested her.

"Police public affairs commented yesterday on the apparent theft of police database records during the December 20th attack on the minato police station…this admittance came after constant rumors…" Ami started to read softly before her voice drifted off into silent reading. In another minute she had read enough and asked "Makoto, what do you know about this?"

"Oh that?" Makoto leaned over to see the article her friend had taken apparent, and tense, interest in "…didn't you know about that? It was on the news….some sort of theft of computer records and evidence…they refused to say what the evidence was but…everyone thinks its surveillance videos because they are also investigating…"

"Wait a second…" Ami interrupted.

Ami's focused solely on the new evidence she had found. Computer records and video footage; why would their enemy steal – there was no doubt it was them – video records and a computer files. Ami thought again; logically; if her mother hadn't been at the second battle and Ami hadn't been in her civilian guise at the police station...then logically they had to have seen her at the first battle where...

'Wait a minute!' Ami almost spoke 'of course…'

Ami couldn't remember what made her recall it; but the memory of Artemis's now infamous disabling of the security camera came to mind just then. She remembered how he – after having no choice – broke the camera so she and Minako could change into Sailor Mercury and Venus, leaving only her mother to know about their secret. It had worked in hiding any direct footage of her transformation; but what if there had been another camera just outside the elevator? And if that were the case, what did the enemy notice that tipped off the identity of her mother?

"Security cameras…"

"What?"

"Security cameras…" Ami repeated "at the shopping center…there were security cameras watching us the whole time…"

"…I don't get it" Makoto said

Ami turned around to explain her idea better "at that first battle…there were security cameras…we disabled one so we could transform…but there had to be some watching us from when we were leaving..." Ami explained, as she thought it out herself, when it made sense she added "…that's when they saw mother…"

In hindsight she realized, there was really nothing she could have done about it. Like it not; while the steam and smoke managed to shield onlookers from noticing them escape; video cameras in the elevator foyer, along the floor and even down in the parking lot had no doubt caught them running along making their escape. If this was how the enemy had identified her mother, then it was really an unavoidable mistake that they had collectively made that night.

"I still don't get it…" Makoto said, wondering if Ami knew what she was talking about

"…when the battle was over…remember when I told you how we had to get my mother out with us…"

"Yeah…you picked up her stuff and raced for Haruka's car…so?"

Makoto was a lot smarter than she was when they first met Ami admitted, and she couldn't hold it against her friend for not seeing it as fast as she was. At the same time; the idea was still forming in Ami's own head and the facts seemed to be falling into place faster than she could understand their meeting. She took a good minute of time to think things thought before explaining again.

"Remember…we were still in senshi form when we did that…if the cameras caught us running away with mom then…"

Ami had it figured out – though she wouldn't realize that wasn't how the enemy had figured it out – and in a minute Makoto finally caught on to what she was saying and the logical conclusion that led to. Makoto felt stupid at times like this when it took her longer to work something out, but at the same time she admitted, it was impossible to keep up with a genius like Ami. So if the enemy had noticed that then the whole reason for...

"Wait a minute; they staged the whole raid on the police station just to steal those videos?" Makoto asked, just to confirm what she was thinking

"Yes…it seems so…" Ami said before going on "…and from the looks of it...they stole a police database so they could find out what our names were…and the rest…"

And it all made sense somehow; between the second battle and last night, they had worked out the identity of her mother, first by examining footage of the first battle and then using the police database to look for a face that matched her mother's…after which it was simply waiting for...

"Wait a minute…" Makoto asked "if they did that to find out her name…then how did they know your name…and if you two were even related?"

Ami paused when Makoto said that. It took the moment to consider what she said and Ami suddenly realized something that never occurred to her.

"They must've seen my name on her file…then they saw my profile… and worked out that I was…" Ami mumbled in reply "…no wait a minute…"

She stopped to think. Ami had previous experience with enemies finding out her identity oddly enough, but in all those cases, the identification didn't come because the enemy worked out who her mother was. But in this case, the enemy had and tried to kidnap her, but even in this case; how did they know that the Sailor Mercury who had shown up at the last minute was related? The answer took fully a minute to come to her, as Ami replayed her conversation with the old man yet again and realized something.

"…they didn't know…" Ami replied "…but when my mother called out to me…he must've known my name and realized…"

And that Ami realized what had happened; at least what she thought happened. Despite her own deductions, Ami was incorrect at in interpreting the exact events – by the simple virtue that the information offered different explanations – that led up to her mother's kidnapping, but her conclusion was virtually the same as the one the Colonel Vita had come to. Given what she knew now however, Ami also discovered something else, something that both answered her original question and frightened her as a result.

"And that's why she was kidnapped…" Ami said

In kidnapping her mother – who could identify Ami through her senshi form – she had the potential of identifying all the senshi she had encountered that night. Worst of all; thanks to their discussion the following morning, her mother could name all of the senshi by civilian identity. It was simple a conclusion Ami realized; even if its implications vastly understated the discovery.

"Why she was…what do you mean?" Makoto asked

Ami explained again what she had figured out and the feelings that gutted at the pit of the stomach and made you feel the weight of the magnitude of the discovery, was passed from Ami to Makoto.

"Ami…" Makoto said before starting to think 'it wasn't your fault…you couldn't have predicted…'

But they could have, certainly Uranus and Neptune had and now the words to Minako and Usagi from before seemed to make more sense now. It wasn't the kind of thought that awarded guilt at being proven wrong; but Makoto couldn't help but feel it anyway.

"Everyone is in danger..." Ami announced, feeling as low as a deep grave before the pat on her shoulder surprised her. Before she could even ask what Makoto was doing, her friend spoke

"Then we'll beat them first!" Makoto announced, hiding her own worries and being brave for Ami right now "And your mom wouldn't give them anything before we rescue her will she?"

Ami thought about that and through the desperate gloom saw the light that Makoto was trying to shine on her. Her mother, disregard what she said, wouldn't cooperate with the enemy Ami knew. But could her mother hold on to those names in time for her to be rescued? Ami didn't know, but she couldn't help but feel the idea that Makoto had just warmed into her body at that moment.

"You're right…"

In her supreme moment of despair; Ami sought to believe in a hopeless situation, even without knowing for herself if it was possible; but that was why it was called hope.

* * *

Sitting alone now and brewing himself a tea to drink before sleeping, the general sat alone in his conference room and surveyed the situation he had found himself in. Without having to change his gaze however, the general didn't need to be reminded at the cost so far inflicted. Three of the chairs were no longer occupied by living colonels; Achen, a loyal but junior officer, Azreal his most senior and trusted friend and now Vita, having foresworn to a death that nobody could describe. His own expectations of seeing her again had rapidly diminished as the hours passed and only now he could only admit to himself that she was truly gone.

From either ending up in the earth or in the time-space tunnel – where she would be hunted by time-manipulating senshi until her demise – which in both cases meant she was as good as dead. He felt responsible for it, she had after all been standing right next to her when they both teleported out; but he couldn't have known. How did it happen? He couldn't answer that and Denisa's prior explanation to how the battery might have failed to work hadn't satisfied him. Hadn't he ordered her to change the battery and inspect the watches prior to their mission?

"General?" spoke a voice from the door

"Colonel Soyuz…" the general looked up and saw his subordinate walk in "…is she asleep?"

"Yes sir…there was not much we could do about that, I said so before…"

"I know…" the general replied

"Any word on Colonel Vita?"

"None…if she was still alive, we'd have heard from her by now…it's still possible but…not, I cannot say she is among us mere mortals anymore"

Soyuz nodded, disappointed at the news; despite knowing for awhile now that it was highly unlikely that she would be alive. He had asked only because the thoughts from the warehouse had festered again and now that he had time to consider it, he had full formed his opinion on what had happened and after hesitating concerns about how his words would affect the general; explained what he had let himself forget about until now. 


	18. Chapter 17: Escalating conflict

**Chapter 17: Escalating conflict**

Despite the assurance that it would be easy to detect and trace the teleporting signals; the actual task of collecting the information had been slightly harder than was initially expected. It wasn't that they didn't know where to look, it was just the areas that garnered their attention this evening were equally occupied by police, fire brigade and the media for very much the same reason. In the case of the gas station, it was impossible to even get close enough to gather the signals they need and at the train station across town, it had been a very risky effort. It was at times like this Pluto had wished to just walk onto the scene and hope the police would give deference for the sake of their own investigation, she had lived far too long to expect that would be the case.

And so; without having much else going for them; Pluto, with Neptune and Mars did their best, the former pointing her garnet staff at where both latter felt the most energy. It took far longer to isolate the signals compared to just standing where they came in, but in the end, the three senshi as a team had started to work out a rough idea to where their enemy had disappeared to.

"Is that going to be enough?" Neptune asked as she saw Pluto raise her staff again, finishing the isolating of signals she could detect.

"It's enough to get a general direction, but we're not going to help us get a accurate read" Pluto replied honestly.

"Is there anyway of fixing that?" Luna asked while behind held in the arms of Mars.

"We could get closer, but I don't think they…" Pluto gestured to the police officers roaming the ground floor where the signals originated "will let us…let's head back and see what we've got so far…"

The two other senshi and cat all nodded in agreement and made a quiet exit from the cordoned off shopping centre they had so expertly entered and exited. In another few minutes; they were outside again and free to roof hop to a discreet alleyway. In here; Pluto, Neptune and Mars became Setsuna, Michiru and Rei again before they walked out to the waiting car that had been there since they entered the alleyway an hour before.

"Anything?" Haruka said when the final door was shut.

"Not a lot" Michiru replied from the passenger seat "let's go"

"There's coffee in the back if want some" Haruka gestured to the three Styrofoam cups that she had placed on the centre backseat; something that despite they needed tonight. All three of them grab a cup before Haruka put the car into gear and drove off and only until they were underway again did Haruka ask where to go next; and there was some debate about that at present.

"It's at least a three degree arc..." Setsuna said as she sketched with her finger the general direction that the traces followed. She and mars shared the backseat where both looked down on the fold out map Haruka had in her glove compartment. They had drawn in pencil the line of bearing that the temporal signatures from Ami's house had provided and were now adding ones from their distance-challenged survey at Ebisu station.

"And that places their around here" Artemis said as he circled with his paw "that's and that's a pretty wide area"

Haruka turned onto the main road before reminding them "So where do you want me to go?"

The three thought about it before Setsuna decided for the car.

"If we go back to the gas station, we might get be able to get a third line of bearing and that'll save us searching that whole area for the hideout"

"Where is it?" Haruka asked in curiosity.

"So far, it's pointing towards Shinagawa, but from the temporal signatures we got, we don't know which side of the canal it's on…" Michiru explained "a third line of bearing from Tamachi station will tell us which side"

"You really think going back there will help?" Haruka replied, already working out the best way to get there "last time you said the place was covered with cops, didn't you tell me that?"

"We did, but hopefully they've thinned out since then" Setsuna replied

"Well if you say so…" Haruka warned, turning the wheel for the next corner.

Her role in tonight's investigation had been steadily demoted to driver for everyone. Haruka had first delivered Minako and Usagi home, citing for them that their return home being delayed by the self explanatory train delays – that were indeed leaving people stranded all over town – and that by chance, as was so often the case, the two had been given a ride home. As always; Haruka dealt with the Aino and Tsukino family with a tolerant, if somewhat strained at the leash nicety. While this wasn't really necessary for Usagi's family; who genuinely could forgive their daughter for coming home so late, Minako's family had required Haruka to ignore the very snide comments that Sailor Venus's mother could sprout at times like this.

When that restraint-challenging task was done, Haruka and Artemis had picked up the first batch of coffee for the night joined up with the team at Tamachi station. Now having waited an hour near Ebisu station – except to buy more coffee – Haruka turned the wheel again towards Tamachi station; knowing quite well the importance, even as she pondered at the wisdom of going back to a police crowded crime scene.

"We're not doing so badly" Setsuna reminded everyone in the car as she saw the map "at this rate, we'll have it localized pretty soon"

"Dawn is a few hours away…" Rei reminded her "and then we'll need to be at our full strength to take the place…"

All of them nodded, getting the in-between message that their fellow senshi was reminding her. Despite being older than the others; by dawn all of them would need at least an hour or two of sleep before even considering attacking anyone. Michiru, being the better judge for sleep made a decision.

"Rei, when we get to the next place, take the time to sleep" Michiru declared "Setsuna and I will handle the tracking…"

"Michiru…" Rei replied at once "this isn't the time to…"

"She's right" Pluto said, catching Rei's raised hand of objection and lowering it for her "you need to preserve your energy…when we get to localize the hideout itself, Michiru will have a sleep and you will help me"

"That's going to put a lot of strain on you…" Haruka reminded Setsuna "can you handle it?"

Setsuna merely nodded, knowing Haruka could see her in the rearview mirror. Privately she knew different, even as the eldest senshi; Setsuna was still human like the others and needed rest just like everyone else. But at the same time, Setsuna was prepared for the burden; not just in her capacity as Sailor Pluto, but in the knowledge that she had a responsibility to her fellow inner senshi to ensure the safety of her mother. For her personal role for creating the falling-out they had; Setsuna wouldn't rest until they had been reunited.

* * *

Makoto had helped Ami get back to sleep – the massage helped – but after placing her friend back in the bed shared with the still blissfully unaware Sailor Saturn; Makoto had somehow managed failed to return to sleep herself. She knew how important sleep was right now and didn't need to be told by the other four on the road right now that they would be needed in the morning. Minako and Usagi hadn't called her and Makoto had decided against calling them; if anything to not interrupt their sleep or, in light of the current circumstances, not accidently drag anyone else into this situation. Makoto was tall, use to sleeping on couches in cold places and sleeping alone; but for some reason it didn't seem to work fast enough for her tonight.

The couch was comfortable for sure and it was even longer than Makoto was taller; the heat in the room was just right given the expensive reverse cycle air conditioner that this condo sported and Makoto wasn't quite alone, with Ami and Sailor Saturn just sleeping on the other side of the wall the couch backed. But despite all that; Makoto just couldn't command her body to fall asleep, even for a few minutes and it was at times like this that she found her herself admiring Sailor Saturn's ability to sleep better than her two elder senshi counterparts.

Despite her role in and abilities as a sailor senshi, and adding the situation that they had all collectively found themselves in; it was quite remarkable that Saturn was able to sleep so peacefully. Even in the uniform she wore – which Makoto had known from personal experience was not comfortable to sleep in – Hotaru Tomoe in her Saturn form retained just enough of the childlike magic to be able to remain asleep through almost any situation. Makoto knew it was not fair to merit this ability due to her physical and sometimes mental appearance of an eleven to twelve year old; but it was as good an explanation as any to explain how she managed to sleep,

'…and do so in and adorably cute way' Makoto remarked with a smile.

Makoto rolled over to face the television and the clock that rested above it; in the normal course of the human habit of getting a fix on the measure of time they had spent awake. The time was nearing four in the morning. Amazing how time seemed to go a lot faster than she expected; in her experience, it always seemed like situations like this went a lot slower than normal. It didn't feel like that at all, instead it felt like time was going by very quickly; in another few hours the sun would rise to bring a new day and everyone would wake up to the same problem as before.

It wasn't new for them to experience anxiety in between battles with their enemy; having fought five different enemies in the space of only a few years, one learnt how to handle the feeling of awaiting battle very well. To the laymen, the same experienced usually translated to the feeling of anticipating work the next day; but for the senshi, it was the anticipation that they would have to fight again. Always a stressful element of that part of their life; it would have literal meaning now that Ami had worked out something none – except maybe two – of their number worked out.

'And then how would that work out…' she started to ask herself 'will we get her back in time? If Ami is right…will she expose us?'

They were all good points to bring up, but at the moment they were all points that couldn't be easily answered by anyone until they knew more about where Ami's mother was. It didn't feel like a good answer to her concerns; but Makoto had to admit to herself that there was really nothing she could do about it until then. In the meantime however; Makoto had to get some sleep and be refreshed when the call came out. That that to be her only absolute for the time being; everyone in the search team still out there – she didn't know but could guess – depended on well rested senshi to back them up in an impending rescue mission.

With that; Makoto rolled onto her back and closed her eyes; repeating the absolute need in head until she drifted off to sleep.

From this high up in the mountains, first light of a new day could come a lot earlier than lower down in the valleys and that afforded everyone to be broader minded to the definition as the new day could start long before others. In this sense; while the nearest town was still long from receiving even the first ray of light, the resort in which the dark kingdom had made their hideout was already embracing the sun and so was starting their day. This fact didn't warm to Saeko very well, who felt that it was a very benign excuse to continue their interrogation sooner.

* * *

"Good morning doctor…" soyuz started to speak, sitting opposite a table in the center of the room

"Good morning…" Saeko replied dryly, still feeling the effects of the little sleep she added "…was it really necessary to start literally at dawn?"

"Unfortunately for you it is…and for me to get the information I want on time, we will start when I feel like it"

"After only been asleep for a few hours?" Saeko tried to speak

"If need be…"

For Saeko, it seemed like it she hadn't slept more than four hours before being woken up; as a result thinking it too early to consider it dawn yet, despite the visual evidence the contrary. But she had used the time wisely in considering her options; knowing one way or another, what her situation was and coming the logical conclusion that she had been unable to do while awake. Even as she was sat down in the chair again by the handling women her this morning – which she had learnt was called Rin – Saeko was determined to retain sparing disinterest about telling them anything.

Saeko had come to that conclusion after taking an hour out of her allotted time for sleep to evaluate what had happened and to consider her options. Like her daughter, she could think on complicated subjects entirely in her head, and it had not been a huge stretch of the imagination to guess anything; thanks to the fact that everything Saeko needed to know was already established information. Saeko had started to put together the pieces of information from last night, and in review what she learnt, applying that to what Saeko thought she was suppose to do in situations like this.

It didn't take too much to work out who these people were behind the attack at the shopping centre – given their ability to pull that picture out of thin air from last night – and probably the police station too from the sounds of things. She had been the main objective of their third battle last night which apparently involved distracting the senshi and her daughter for a bit while they kidnapped her. But somehow, in some wayward miracle; one of the senshi, her daughter in fact, caught on to what was going on and attempted to fend off the attackers.

While mercury had been unsuccessful on that count – which Saeko found personally horrifying to witness – she had survived to tell the others. It now seemed it had been the minor complication in their plan that forced them to escape from their hideout, despite the semi-suspicious disappearance of one of their fellow kidnappers.

"So shall we pick up where we left off?"

"I don't see much of a choice…you did say you were time limited" Saeko replied

"If you think its because their going to rescue you…then your sadly mistaken" Soyuz started "did you really think that they would care?"

"Then why do you care about a time limit?"

Soyuz paused and noted the cunning wit that his hostage had, had returned despite the early hour. He had been right in knowing that they wouldn't come here to rescue her, but only because Soyuz knew what was in the message the general sent behind.

"Then you realize why they want to get you back then?" Soyuz posed

"That's easy…I'm a citizen and a doctor and mother to Sailor Mercury" Saeko said proudly, knowing that she was overdoing it just a bit.

Saeko couldn't, even she hoped to, backtrack the words about her relation. Her interrogator had shown her last night that they had collected enough evidence to the contrary to disprove any deniability, and had mainly done that to see how well she could lie. They had been disappointed when Saeko didn't and their attempts to get her to disclose the name of the blond girl in the picture of them had gone off to a rough start when she talked in the same way as when she didn't deny her relation to – as they preferred to refer to her daughter – Sailor Mercury.

"indeed you are…" colonel Soyuz fiddled with the orb in his hand to activate it "…which is why I find it perplexing that you cant seem to recall the name of this young girl…despite evidence clearly going against what you said to me last night"

In an instant, the screen showing the image Saeko had seen before reappeared. Standing outside the toy shop; minutes before the disaster that changed her life forever. Soyuz couldn't tell what they were looking at from this angle though he would've found the focus of the attention fairly ironic.

"It's hard to remember everything about my daughter's friends…Ami talks to so many people that it's hard to keep track…" Saeko started to lie before sprinkling a little truth "…and if you ever saw my work roster, you might believe me"

"We did…" Soyuz also replied honestly, just to see her get caught off guard. He got what he wanted; seeing Saeko react just like an amateur. The problem though was he had seen the roster and if it had been like this for the doctor; what she might have said could also be true. It was something that didn't get him anyway, so he moved on to the next query.

"But…you must know her name…I mean you clearly saw her turn into Sailor venus in that tiny lift…"

"Look…its hard to remember okay…it's Mini-something….min…min…mine…miu..." Saeko started to produce variations of Minako "its one of those names that's easy to forget…"

"Really…" soyuz said "aren't doctors like you suppose to have great memories?"

"For medicine…do you know how many people have I have treated who have the same name as Aino-san?"

"Aino-san? Aino?"

The room went quiet; which was interrupted by the sound of Soyuz picking up a pen and writing it down on a piece of paper. As simple as the technology was, it was still useful in jolting down information that was simple to pass on and before Saeko has realized what she had said, Soyuz turned to Rin – who until now had just been watching in the corner – and spoke

"Take this and the orb to your sister and have her run a check…M-something Aino, blonde hair, about old as this one's daughter"

"Of course…" Rin replied before leaving the room.

Alone with her thoughts again, Saeko realized at what she had just done, in barely an hour they had managed to get her to spill enough information to turn over Sailor Venus as Minako Aino; she almost bit her tongue at the thought at who she had just compromised by accident. She realized just how easy it was to be tricked by a person like this and it wasn't easy to out fool a professional.

'I'm sorry Minako…' Saeko thought as she slumped her head forward.

Soyuz, having never really taken his eyes off her noticed the reaction Saeko had given and was pleased at the unofficial confirmation to his suspicions. If she were truly a professional at this, she would've done nothing, or implied relief – which would make him think he had it wrong – but Saeko clearly wasn't trained like a spy and despite her job description requirement of keeping secrets as a doctor, she wasn't immune to tricks like that.

"I wouldn't feel too bad about it…your going to eventually give me all the names I want anyway…"

"But you want to kill them all!" saeko yelled, her eyes welling up with tears.

"Doctor…if the roles were reversed…do you really think your daughter wouldn't do the same…" Soyuz started "…do you really think she would give us the same mercy you demand from us?"

Saeko became silent as she tried to answer that, but Soyuz continued on.

"Do you even know who your daughter and her friends represent?" Soyuz asked "Does she even tell you about what or why or for whom she does it for?"

"No I…"

Soyuz answered for her "didn't she ever tell you the truth…that they would rather destroy everyone than even think of…negotiating as equals? That's exactly how the moon kingdom is…and they have the gall to label us as the Dark kingdom…"

"But what…" Saeko tried and paused, waiting for him to cut him off. When he didn't she continued on "But what has she done to deserve this…why do you want to kill them?"

Soyuz paused and considered the honesty in her remarks and again correctly deduced if she was telling the truth or not. She had been and it surprised him how little she had been told about the moon kingdom at all. Nothing, not a word seemed to come to her mind or remind her or the greater entity that the senshi represented; it was almost like she had never been told at all; a disturbing possibility.

"Do you even know who they are?" Soyuz asked "what your 'sailor senshi' are?"

"Until that night, I didn't even know my daughter was one…" Saeko finally admitted.

Soyuz was surprised by that comment, more so given that his hostage's brief temper; it had been obliviously true. For a brief moment, Soyuz had doubted her brief emotional honesty, thinking it something she had said it to throw him off. But if that was true, what about the amateur mistake from before, she couldn't have possibly planned that, had she? But, if this was true, then it really changed the dynamic of the interrogation. If she only knew recently about her daughter's secret identity; it severally limited the depth of information that she had, but it wasn't as great a disappointment as one might have imagined.

Soyuz reflected that even with the realization that she might not be completely informed about the sailor senshi, she had still been able to provide the real names of Sailor Mercury and possibly Sailor Venus to his custody and she might know more. But before that thought reached its logical conclusion, Rin returned with the orb in her hands.

"It's confirmed…"

"Really?" Soyuz asked

"There are three Ainos with blonde hair…and in the age bracket…but only one with an M in her name, her name is Minako" she started to explain as she placed the orb on the table "here is what she looks like"

The hologram beamed up a picture profile of a young teenager with long flowing blonde hair and blue eyes posing for what was no doubt – at least for Saeko – for a school ID card. If the face alone tipped him off, the side by side with the best snap shot of Minako before she transformed into Venus pretty much confirmed it; the same red ribbon easy translated across in the ID picture to the head of the girl in the picture, pretty much confirming her as Sailor Venus.

Had Soyuz been a proper intelligence officer however, he might've paid less attention to the facial recognition process and more to the text details that were provided with the record; as a result he would never make the connection that the two sailor senshi he just uncovered went to the same school and that a simple query for the other student names could have easily delivered him the real name of Sailor moon and Sailor Jupiter.

Saeko remained silent again throughout the whole exchange and again Soyuz caught the look that she gave herself and knew again she confirmed the identification.

"As I said…" Soyuz started "…you're going to eventually give me all the names I want anyway…and I can get those names with or without your cooperation…"

Saeko looked up when he said that while he stood himself, now holding the orb in his hand. Soyuz walked around the table and approached his hostage.

"you see…this device doesn't just hold information…it collects it as well…everything we know about the senshi so far is on this device…we have collected from computers and video cameras…" Soyuz stopped walking and leaned in to show the orb a bare inch from Saeko's face "But it doesn't stop at machines…" Then he removed the orb and replaced it with his own face, at a more distant one foot from Saeko's face "if I see it necessary…I can have this purge that information from you…"

Saeko was afraid of what she had just learnt and instantly wondered at the ramifications of such a treatment, in a sense asking her question only to confirm her suspicions.

"Then why haven't you used it yet?"

Soyuz smirked, knowing that she'd ask why and knowing that as a doctor – the civilian term for healer in her society – would instantly about the psychical effects. Unlike his general however, he wasn't really afraid of overindulging her with information.

"If I were to use it to extract everything I wanted, the effects on your brain would be…cataclysmic…to say nothing about your mortality" Soyuz remarked as he stepped backwards, away from his hostage and back to his seat "but in short doses, on singular questions…the effect is…less fatal"

Saeko merely nodded, recognizing the power without having it tested on her.

"In any case…as much as I would like to get the information we need…" Soyuz replied without remorse "…I would imagine that you wouldn't want to die in vain…"

Saeko merely nodded before they continued on, but inside she thought about the situation more carefully and realized the flaw in his momentary explanation. It also meant that she might be safe, if of course he was telling the truth. More importantly; Saeko had already suspected that they were working against some sort of time limit; but she couldn't figure out why until now. The old man that led this group seemed to hint at something along those lines last night and amongst the tidbits of things Saeko had heard; but now she seemed certain. If Soyuz or the others wanted to kill her, they would've done that already and skipped the whole interrogation part, but if they wanted to keep alive, then that meant something else.

Finally; as he had stated at the beginning of this session; the others around the old man, including her captor at the moment seemed to believe that they weren't going to have enough time. If that was the case Saeko knew; then she would do everything to hold out as long as she could, stall, tell them as little as possible, anything to buy herself time.

* * *

The call came out around seven that morning, but the time for preparation meant it took another two before they even ready to approach the apparent hideout. The simple fact was Pluto had run her body into the ground and needed at least an hour of sleep before she was partially refreshed; something that constant denial didn't solve. Among the other three who at least had gotten an hour each; it wasn't the ideal situation, but it had to do. At around eight that morning, the senshi reconvened at Ami's house to start talking tactics, while their host's patience for waiting any longer became universal.

After meeting up and revaluating the plan – while Pluto took the chance for sleep – as quickly as they could; the senshi geared up, and moved out to head out for the mission they hoped weren't too late in executing. By ten; they had all gotten to the suspected warehouse; confirmed by the localized temporal residue that was so easily felt that the Mars and Neptune could point out the source from two blocks away. The confirming of which warehouse at around dawn had been the easy part; getting inside and rescuing the hostage was quite another problem. But just like Mercury; she had long since drawn up plans like that and accordingly all the senshi were aware of it.

There had been some modifications of course; but it was to be expected. Every building had different layouts and different designs; but they all followed the same logic. Accordingly the teams were split and their entry into the buildings allocated accordingly. Venus, Jupiter and Pluto would take the first team, Sailor moon, Mars and Uranus in the second, and Mercury, Saturn and Neptune would take the third. The split in forces guaranteed a balance in power; which thanks to their lessons during the police station raid, had learnt worked out just fine.

"How are things everyone" Sailor moon asked as she and her mini team arrived at the loading docks of a building across the alleyway.

"We're still on our way to the roof, no resistance yet…" Jupiter replied for Venus. They were on a warehouse roof on the other side of the road.

"Nothing here" Saturn said, peering around the corner from an abounded shipping container.

"Okay…like we discussed…good luck and we'll see you inside" Sailor moon talked into her communicator.

The warehouse was as surrounded as they could make it and if Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor mini-moon had been here, they would've been around to form up a fourth team to completely occupy the building's four corners. It backed onto another warehouse which itself backed onto one of the canals that formed between mini islands that extended into the bay. The private industrial park road was as unused as these warehouses were all unused; nothing around to surprise them and it came across to everyone the perfect place for a dark kingdom hideout to be. They couldn't but feel for traps; after all they had managed to get this close without confrontation and there was the wonder about where they would encounter resistance.

"Okay, here we go…" Artemis said, watching from the dashboard of Haruka's car everything, for the purposes of this mission, they couldn't risk mixed messages – a long discussed concern by all the senshi this morning – causing everything to go awry like last night and so Uranus's communicator was donated and designated to Artemis and Luna to coordinate the messages. It wasn't the best arrangement and all of them agreed that it was an aspect of their planning that felt the worst prepared, but there was no hoping it.

"3…2…1…" Luna spoke as she saw 10:29:59 to 10:30:00 on the car clock, while she pressed all the buttons and gave the start.

All at once, they came from three directions. The first to go was Venus's team who jumped across the street, the roof didn't have a stairwell going down to the ground and so while in the air, Sailor Venus and Jupiter aimed their first volley of attacks at the skylights that lined the side of the roof they could see.

"Cresent….Beam!" Venus shouted, firing a golden laser at the glass she had intended to shatter.

"Sparkling Wide…Pressure!" Jupiter commanded a second or two after Venus's first beam shot had cleared the largest skylight. Her lighting bolts broke more than she had planned, but it did clear the way for their airborne entry into the abandoned warehouse.

Sailor moon was the next team to move out, jumping down from the loading dock and across the alleyway onto their target warehouse's own loading dock. Along the way Sailor moon slowed behind as Sailor mars and Uranus broke open the doors.

"Burning Mandala!"

"Space Sword Blaster!"

The attacks predictably broke the rusting warehouse garage doors into burnt molten and shredded tin scraps respectively; when the senshi were sufficiently satisfied with the job, their strong legs collectively kicked in the one with the most damage. Sailor moon followed in short order and joined them on the loading dock, in reserve so she could use a Moon Spiral Heart Attack at the slightest provocation. When the way was confirmed clear of any possible robots, they entered further into the building.

"Alright…"

Finally; at hearing the signal; Saturn and her team darted around the container and straight towards the open door that seemingly invited them to enter the building. Their chosen assignment had been chosen purely for the benefit of making use of Saturn's shield…if need due to a line of gun wielding robots on the inside waiting. The front entrance was at the opposite end to where the loading dock was, but on the same side that the Venus's team was coming from, the resulting danger was accordingly treated with the appropriate amount of force.

Among Saturn's own group, they had discussed how they would do it and it was played out exactly to Neptune's suggestion. Mercury; ahead of the group with a purpose reached out and sent off her first volley of magic.

"Shabon Spray!"

The fog's effect was limited given where she had cast it, but it did obscure the entrance enough for anyone inside to not see who was there. It wouldn't last long enough in the open air – which was already eliminate the artificial fog through hear – but it was enough time for the second senshi in the team to perform her part in the plan.

"Silent Wall!"

Saturn's staff protected the semi-invisible barrier as the fog cleared and both Sailor Neptune and Mercury respectively prepared for their first and second attacks. Neptune held her deep Aqua Mirror out aimed like a gun, while Mercury posed herself ready to summon Shine Aqua Illusion at the slightest provocation. When the fog was completely cleared, Saturn withdrew her shield and the trio moved forward.

The entire exercise concluded when Venus's group landed, having passed through the smashed skylights and on top of a pile of crates that afforded them a view of the entire warehouse floor. Aimed to fire off a barrage of attacks, the three scanned the floor for enemies, leaders and their hostage; but it was to no avail. To Venus's left she could see the Saturn team entering and from her right she could see the Sailor moon team entering from the warehouse loading dock. In less than a minute the entire sailor senshi team had infiltrated a warehouse that their enemy had long since abandoned.

"All clear everyone!" Venus announced on her own communicator, relaxing and realizing the futility of the situation.

Across the street, the cats heard the all clear signal and hopped out of Haruka's car, racing as fast as they could to the entrance that Mercury and Saturn had just unnecessarily cleared. In another three minutes the sailor senshi all grouped up again at the center of the warehouse.

"Empty" Pluto spoke the obvious thought on everyone's minds.

"Yeah..." Mars said, turning to see the handiwork of her entry and how it had been completely useless. In a warehouse no larger than the shrine she lived at; it was pretty obvious that their enemy had long since fled the scene, possibly thanks in part to Mercury's timely arrival at seeing her mother being kidnapped; but more than likely gone to a safer place to be interrogated.

"Pluto, do you feel any other teleporting traces?" Venus asked

Knowing it was the most suitable thing to do at this very moment; Pluto went to work searching the warehouse for signals; Neptune and Mars did the same; spreading out from the centre to feel for fresh traces of temporal residue. Uranus, Jupiter and Sailor moon then started to search the floor for other clues not married to the application of quantum physics.

This left Saturn, Venus and Mercury with nothing to do but be on the lookout for a possible trap that their early concluded battle might have missed. A quick scan of the roof and the floor revealed not much else except what one saw from an abandoned warehouse. The inside stank of diesel and the canal waters not too far away; the lighting was miserable, even with the renovations that Sailor Jupiter and Venus had done; the whole atmosphere of the building reeked of the hopelessness their situation seemed to garner.

"Over here!" Jupiter said as found a woven bag on the floor near a pile of empty metal drums.

Those free of the task of analyzing the temporal traces made their way over to Jupiter's discovery, as she picked the bag up and reached in to pull out what she had discovered.

"Cell phones?" Sailor moon asked before taking the one out of Jupiter's hand

"A few of them..." Jupiter said before clarifying "just three…"

Uranus took the next one that Jupiter pulled from the bag and instantly checked it from a technical perspective. Switching it on gave her power, but she didn't see the usual bars of reception go up to the standard signal – rather it gave too much – strength that this city provided. Then Uranus pulled the back open, killing the power and checking for a…

"There's no phone service chip…" Uranus announced quite surprised. Usually you didn't get any bars of reception unless you had one of those little things in the appropriate slot. Uranus turned to their technical expert next who had already produced her micro-computer to check. Mercury was trying her best to hide the frustration at the moment and started to analysis the one in Uranus's hand.

"They've been altered…" Mercury realized and then explained "…they have been made to work without a phone service chip…and they have boosted transmitters…they wouldn't have even needed a cell phone repeater tower…they even have the more range than our communicators"

"That's just great" Uranus swore as she handed it over to Saturn to look at, she then took several steps to shout "Anything Pluto?"

"Nothing" Pluto said, withdrawing her staff for the moment to lean on it "all the signals head towards Tamachi, Ebisu and Ami's apartment…there isn't a second set of traces anywhere"

"Then they must've used a portal" Artemis announced as he and Luna walked up to the group searching for temporal signatures "one with a preset destination"

"And that's not traceable" Mars asked

"No…" Artemis simply replied "it's stealthy…but it's not movable, once you set it up you can't move it…but once it's used its gone forever"

There investigation of the empty warehouse was not going anywhere. They had clearly been here and even left evidence behind that they had; but it had all been useless details so far. At least until Sailor moon noticed something in the corner that should have been obvious on their first arrival. They had all seen the simple metal folding chair and guessed quite correctly at the possibility that Saeko had been sitting in it briefly; but they hadn't seen the flimsy piece of paper that was several feet from the chair in the dark. Sailor moon walked there at once and picked what turned out to be a standard sized envelope off the dirty floor.

It had fallen face down and collected some of the wet grime that this warehouse seemed to breed in. Sailor moon however could easily read the addressee that was meant to open the letter.

"Mercury!" Sailor moon shouted "Over here!"

She had asked for Mercury, but the entire group came as well, not so much with nothing to do as by the tone of Sailor moon's voice. In a minute they all knew why.

"It's for you…" Sailor moon handed it over to her friend to open

As Mercury opened it, Venus looked at the location and pondered if their successful infiltration had blown it over to here; in a second the relevance of her trivial concern was vanquished. With an extended finger, Mercury tore the envelope top and reached in to pull the message the out, noticing at once feeling the extra contents contained within the message itself. When Mercury disposed of the envelope by letting it glide to the floor, she opened the letter; and on reaction caught the extra contents in her hand.

"What is it?" Jupiter asked a second before everyone else.

"It's…" Mercury answered, before taking a closer look "…it's my…"

"It's blue…" Jupiter noted "could it be…"

It's my mother's…" Ami confirmed, feeling the lock of hair in her hand, she came to the realization that the message was legitimate. Mercury held onto it while she turned her attention to the message, in her head she started to relate the words to herself;

'Dear Mercury-san, first let me commend you and your team on finding this message as it means you have successfully worked out where we were hiding, but unfortunately by my calculations…when you read this letter, we have long since moved on…however…'

Mercury continued to read into the second paragraph, but she couldn't finish reading the letter. The frustration and the marriage of that to the content of the message's second paragraph had exceeded her capacity to hold back her anger anymore. She dropped the letter, but elected to hold what she had in her other hand more tightly.

"That…smug…little…" Mercury paced her words as she walked to the chair and on the four beat swore violently as she kicked the metal chair over.

The chair and her voice made a loud echoing sound in the abandoned warehouse that none of the others could have missed. Their reaction was hesitant for only a microsecond before Mars and Jupiter responded, followed a second later by everyone else. Before Mercury could make another step towards kicking the downed chair again; Jupiter restrained her friend and pulled her back from venting her anger.

"Hey! Hey!" Mars pleaded as she raced around to Mercury's front and tightly gripped her forearms.

"Let me go!" Mercury struggled "Let me get at that…"

Mercury didn't get anywhere and in a few seconds her educed rage vented its last into Mars's face. Her emotional despair took over and so in short order did the energy to release herself from Jupiter's hold. Aware of the futility of holding onto Mercury any longer, Jupiter let her go and her friend fall forward onto Mars. Her head found Mars shoulder to release tears onto.

"They keep…every step…they keep…" Mercury started to make no sense.

Until now, her emotions for the moment had been withheld; she hadn't cried for the situation that her mistake had caused her mother to be in, and until now her professional restraint had prevented her from feelings that a normal person would have under these same circumstances. But those feelings had built up and as much as Mercury had taken time to release them during the previous night, the build up of them hadn't done her any good; there was only so much she could suppress before it got too much for her powers to contain. As Mercury collapsed from the strain – and ignoring the looks she would get from the others – in her moment of weakness; Pluto picked up the letter that she had dropped on the floor.

Pluto scanned it briefly, finding the same distaste that Mercury had found, though her virtue of not being directly effected prevented from physically assaulting furniture, she couldn't help but feel the pain for the moment. When she was done reading, she handed it over to Uranus, who started reading it aloud for the others.

"…and finally, and this is my sole demand. That you present yourself and only yourself as Sailor Mercury to me on the roof of the building called 'the Juban Super center' tonight at 8 o'clock…failure to attend will result in the immediate death of your mother…" Uranus dictated without a beat missed "…yours sincerely...General Kovomeyer, ninth general of the third guards regiment"

The entire group remained silent at the end of Uranus's dictation, not knowing what to say or when to say it. Mixed feelings came and went as the senshi looked at each other; Mars looked at Sailor moon as though she knew what to say. She didn't, but Sailor moon did know what to say to Mercury.

"We're going to get her back…" Sailor moon announced

At hearing that, Mercury lifted her head and looked at sailor moon, wondering if she was crazy. Then spiritual leader of the team walked over to her just, knowing a group announcement was not suitable for a personal assurance. Feeling the relapse away from her shoulder, Mars helped Mercury to her feet in time to face their leader.

"We're going to get her back…" Sailor moon repeated, placing her hand on her friend's shoulder "Me, Mars, everyone…and you"

"But how…"

"That's something we will solve next…" Sailor moon said in surprised honesty "…but we're all going to get her back for you"

Mercury's recompose started then, first to appear in control in front of her friend – despite her witnessing to the contrary just before – and because she recognized the words that Sailor moon spoke weren't being said out of reluctance for a technical reason. Sailor moon wasn't their greatest warrior or their greatest tactical mind; but it wasn't those qualities that brought her to be their spiritual, and hopefully one day, monarchial leader. Around her the other senshi nodded in agreement; for at that moment, setting aside the difficultly of the mission they had signed themselves up for, agreeing in unison the need to rescue Sailor Mercury's mother was more than the need to secure their secret, the moment passed in short order when Uranus pounded her fist and announced;

"Alright…we're done here then…is there anything else we have learnt?"

Uranus's mood changing sentence – however awkward it might have sounded at first – accelerated the other senshi into forgetting quickly about Mercury's outburst and starting thoughts about their new goal.

"Well…we at least now know who is leading this group…" Artemis spoke from the floor "…Kovomeyer…it's for certain now that he is behind this"

"…didn't the pictures from last night didn't convince you?" Pluto asked

"Did they convince you?" Artemis replied "it's hard to admit it was him until I heard his name…"

The one problem with memories was that rarely did it accurately agree with a person's own impressions. Remembering the names of people long supposed dead, was just one of those facets that led Pulto redundantly admitting that even she had her doubts. The others didn't know what was being discussed and after a minute of confusion, it was Artemis's mistress who asked first.

"…first of all…Who is General Kovomeyer?"

Artemis replied after looking up at Pluto.

"…he's a general of the Dark kingdom, reputable background, but fairly typical except for one thing"

"And what's that?" Uranus asked the most obvious question.

Artemis could've answered it, but he nodded for Pluto to speak instead. Both him and her had arguable the best memories when it came to this sort of thing; but Pluto saying it seemed – despite Artemis's position as advisor – to have more authority.

"Well for one…he attempted to assassinate Queen Beryl"

* * *

Despite her own attempts, she was only human and even if she had been professionally trained to keep secrets forever; Saeko Mizuno was not able to resist the power of the Orb for even a second as it pulled the name of the third senshi out of her consciousness. This was not to say that she didn't try; it had taken fully three and a half hours before Colonel Soyuz was forced to use the Orb to extract the information; a feat of endurance that even he found impressive. None the less, it had taken considerable strain on her ability to avoid repeating the same mistake and it was only a matter of time before he had been forced to use the orb on her.

Saeko's expectations on how it would interact with her had been speculated for a period of time all morning and for while had even speculated that he had been bluffing, but in the end it had been validated and the name of Hotaru Tomoe was added to the list of names that the Colonel had extracted from his captive. She had been shown her picture all morning, first she denied about seeing more than two senshi, and then in she denied that she had even met that particular senshi. On both counts the surveillance footage provided all the evidence to contradicted her testimony and eventually after a long morning of avoiding being tricked into naming her; Soyuz had used the Orb, at the price of which it would rendered her unconscious for a period of time.

It was the simple mathematics of reality that dictated the end result. Saeko had no way of being able to defend herself mentally and the colonel knew it; but she had still held out until the Orb had been used and now he was faced with an awfully grim reality himself. In using the orb, he would have to wait three hours before her neurological scrambling had healed itself before whatever Saeko said made any sense to him. It was comparable to being drugged or intoxicated, but both in body and mind, where the even the information became disoriented until the subject regained focus. This took time, a long time considering their deadline, and it wasn't something that Soyuz wanted to take too much of in this process.

Upon rendering the subject incapacitated for a number of hours, he sent for the information to be crosschecked, only for his second discovery to first astound, and then almost enrage him. The computer records for which that had identified the other senshi had indeed contained a record of Hotaru Tomoe, but there was a fairly heated argument to which one was the accurate description. Of the three records that matched the criteria; none of them were indistinguishable for the others; except for different birthdates which varied only by months. Using the most recent record seemed prudent, but it also provided doubt for both Soyuz and the twin colonels, now tasked to the operation of this machine.

Having walked away with the minor problem that had come up with regards to the true identity of Sailor Saturn; Soyuz proceeded to find the general to report his findings. He made sure to first of all reveal the names before revealing the bad news to his commander. The results were semi-predictable; but Soyuz had expected more disappointment at learning the things that their captive was barely introduced to the senshi herself, but the general mused that it couldn't be helped in the greater scheme of things. The general instead congratulated his colonel on the progress made, despite the setback forced upon them by use of the Orb.

When Soyuz finished reporting his findings so far, he found himself without anything constructive to do. His captive was still incapacitated and she wouldn't be useful to him for another few hours and so he decided to continue his investigation into the possible traitor among them was without leads to follow down. This led Soyuz to taking a walk outside, somewhere he could gather his thoughts about the accident last night in private.

What he had established so far wasn't very useful to him, even after having discussed his thoughts with the general the previous night, Soyuz still didn't have anything solid to point to Denisa that would prove that the accidents were intentional.

Soyuz continued to follow a path around the corner and into a part of the compound presently bathed in light; it was lined with stone pavers with increments of grass growth showing where seeds had pushed through the rocks above to reach sunlight. Soyuz knew he couldn't leave the compound, strictly because of the general's orders not to do so. In any case this compound itself was fascinating on its own. He still couldn't believe that before that this place had been a hotel of sorts, even when it was in the middle of…

'Huh?' Soyuz paused when he was momentarily blinded by a bright light.

He stopped walking suddenly and looked around to find the source, thinking it a threat at first. When the time for such a threat to kill him passed, Soyuz started to wonder what else had caused it. When he found nothing reflecting now, Colonel Soyuz inched back to see if he could replicate the effect, and so give away the location of the item. When he managed to get blinded in the eye again; Soyuz realized the location of the reflection and had come from a certain spot on a stone paver and with all the arbitrary curiosity that such a discovery merited, Soyuz went to investigate.

'What do we have here…' Soyuz thought as he reached down to pick up the item, now clearly identifiable despite its small size. Much to his surprise, it had been fairly easy to recognize once even as he picked it up. The small silver hammer and the spring that was attached to the head instantly told the colonel what it was without a margin for error. Despite its deceptive size in the palm of his hand; it was actually a fairly important tool in the function of a teleport watch. Colloquially among those who knew the technology, it was called a temporal 'percussion' hammer, one of the most necessary elements of the watch and suitably one of the most durable parts.

'What's a temporal hammer doing in the garden here…' Soyuz asked himself while looking around.

Soyuz's intrigue only got more profound when he looked up and noticed which room he was standing outside of, just to his left and above him by a floor was Denisa's private quarters, where she was even now tuning automatic watches for the auto-troops to use. Soyuz looked down at the item to inspect it again properly, for the moment thinking it had been a damaged hammer, but he found something odd with that analyses.

'If it was broken…why didn't she take the spring off?' Soyuz fiddled with the item as started to turn around and make his way back inside.

From as far as he could tell a minute later, the hammer was in excellent condition, so much so that his suspicions had caught on to what he was doing and ventured to ask a question about it. It made Soyuz seriously think about the question he had asked himself, but hadn't related to anyone else yet, not even his general.

'If I wanted to make someone disappear…" Soyuz repeated the question he had asked when he thought about why the teleport watch Vita used had failed.

The amateur answer of course was poor maintenance; but that left the risk that the person you wanted to kill wouldn't disappear, so it had be done on purpose, which left two options as he had discovered. The first option was installing only one of the two needed batteries, which made the teleport action run out of power before you arrived at the right destination. But the second option was more likely since it guaranteed killing a person by means of the time-space tunnel; in that, you removed a temporal hammer. Its function was more important in the watch; it regulated the power in the watch and without it, one wouldn't be able to stop the teleport once it had reached the intended destination. People could end up in the time-space tunnel if it didn't work or was removed altogether.

The recollection at the second method chilled Soyuz to the bone and his speculation was given fuel when he considered the circumstances of Vita's disappearance one more time. It couldn't have been the battery – like Denisa suspected – since Vita had approached the hospital without the aid of the teleport watch and it couldn't have been a wiring mistake since the general confirmed that the watch did indeed activate. With those two most common errors accounted for, only one option remained.

'So what is a perfectly good hammer, with its spring, doing out here Denisa?'

Soyuz pondered that huge thought as he turned around the corner and started to make his way back into the building, knowing for sure now that if his suspicions were true, he had just the sole piece of evidence that would prove there was a traitor amongst their numbers.

* * *

_Author's commentary: This chapter and the previous one really exists to tie up loose ends and to start setting up the end of the third act, its kind of an downer in a way to have breather chapters work like this, but it worked on the reread. _

_This is the first chapter I name my general, and really the first chapter i outline his background vaguely. General Kovomeyer actually wasnt my first choice for this story and for a long time, orginally i wanted to reuse Jeditie; but as i kept writing, i eventually noticed that he wasnt the guy i wanted and i decided to invent a new personnality when i moved onto the idea of a very compedent, very trustworthy commander. Then i got the whole idea about an Anti-beryl faction and Kovomeyer was born._


	19. Chapter 18: Meeting point

**Chapter 18: Meeting point**

The only practical place for them to return to was Ami's apartment, anywhere else and it would have either taken too long to get there – in the case of the outers' house – or be too indiscrete for them to discuss matters regarding their alternate identities. There had been no objection from Ami, who couldn't really blame them for deciding on her place straight away and at the same time didn't really want to be anywhere else except he own home. It had only taken an hour to return, but another thirty minutes before discussion had gotten underway; none of that discussion turned to the plans for rescue, rather to the topic that sparked the attention of all the senshi, including Ami. Even after first hearing it the warehouse, first through Artemis and then Setsuna, the other senshi couldn't believe what they were hearing, necessitating an explanation upon their return to Ami's apartment.

The story was fairly simple as Artemis went on to explain. Back during the wars between the dark kingdom and the first Silver Millennium; there had been some discord when the leadership of generals in the dark kingdom with Queen Beryl over the direction the kingdom was going in their war. Eventually their displeased with her leadership under Beryl had led to the formation of a faction that would eventually lead to an assassination attempt from a minor general called Kovomeyer. General Kovomeyer himself was a legendary commander by the time he had committed his crime; while not a skilled warrior or a powerful mage, he was a fairly gifted tactical genius and a charismatic leader of his men. But the general had not been as adapt with accepting monarchy politics and he had found himself disillusioned with royalty in charge as much as the more senior generals had become.

He had failed in his attempt however and the resulting purge in ranks by Beryl had seen the leadership of generals replaced by the Shitennou, people for whom had complete and unquestioning loyalty to her. While the leadership of generals had been killed for the conspiracy, Kovomeyer had been frozen in crystal, intentionally to make an example of punishing the man without killing him and it was quite often said in rumor – Artemis warned – that it was to prevent the military from splitting into a civil war.

"…so if he wanted to kill queen beryl…wouldn't that mean he is on our side?" Usagi asked the obvious and fairly stupid question.

"No…" Setsuna replied with a mutter "General Kovomeyer wasn't just anti-Beryl…he was anti-monarchy…."

"Anti-monarchy?" Minako asked.

"General Kovomeyer belonged to a faction of the dark kingdom who wanted to overthrow all the kingdoms…especially the Silver Millennium" Artemis explained "their main issue was…by their view of things…that all royal families, disregard who they were, appeared corrupt and uncaring for the wellbeing of the common people"

"And was it true?" Makoto asked

"For the most part, the most corrupt element applied to the dark kingdom itself…" Setsuna replied honestly "As for the Silver Millennium…it's as they say…open to interpretation"

"Meaning?" Usagi inquired

"It's difficult to explain their interpretation of corruption right now" Setsuna answered "but to put it simply…it has a lot to do with the existence of the senshi and how earth itself has never had one"

Rei muttered something at hearing something new about her distant past while Haruka ignored the trivial fact however and asked the wiser and second most obvious question.

"So how does knowing his past help us?"

"Well…" Setsuna started, knowing that Haruka wouldn't accept an answer from Artemis "if he is anything like back then…it's to work out what his ultimate objective is, he doesn't want to kill us for the fun of it…our presence has made him correctly assume that the Silver Millennium might return to power"

"And so kidnapping…her…was just one step in it" Makoto spoke, avoiding to refer to Ami's mother, even as Ami was standing in the same room.

"It seems like it…but his ultimate objective…if my assumptions are correct" Setsuna concluded, looking down at Artemis for confirmation before continuing "…is us…just as Ami said before"

The room went silent on that note and all the senshi looked around. The news wasn't as alarming as one would imagine, given first the deduction of the clues that Ami had come up with already and the simple fact that this wasn't the first time they're lives had been threatened. While an observer might have come across as a very odd way of thinking about bad news, to the combined group, it was just another part of their lives already made dangerous by the very presence of their second identity. It was something all of them had understood a long time ago, but at the same time, none of them would treat the situation quite the same as before. One only had to look at Ami and remember that her mother neither had a second identity nor was subsequently supposed to accept the risks in their place.

"So what's the plan?" Haruka asked again

They had spent enough time sizing up their enemy all of them noted, and for the second time today, Haruka's voice changed the tone and the topic of their discussion.

"Well first…judging by the letter" Ami started to speak "…maybe it's a good idea I go alone"

Haruka didn't take a second longer to respond.

"That's a stupid idea...from an incredibly smart person…that was a really stupid idea"

"But the letter said I have to come alone…they could kill her if show up with anyone else"

And they couldn't deny that was true. While their enemy was merciful in keeping her mother alive, the letter had made it clear that her continued existence would depend on conditions met for the general. Only two such conditions existed; that Ami come to the Juban super center at eight o'clock tonight alone, that she did so as Sailor Mercury. All of them could have said how unfair it was, except for the fact that it was a waste of breath to say it.

"…you do realize that he's playing everything to his advantage…" Michiru spoke suddenly "…everything to insure that you're outnumbered and outmatched"

"I know" Ami replied again depressed "But unless you can find some way to ensure my mother's safety, we cannot try anything…I know we have a greater duty to the princess and everything…but I wont be able to live with myself if we don't get her out alive"

Again the room fell silent and everyone thought of ideas admitting to themselves that Ami's absolute wasn't movable. Their best tactical mind was unable to think properly for a solution – for understandable and logically sound reasons – and it now fell on their second best tactical mind to make a stand.

"Michiru?" Minako asked "What's your take on all of this?"

All eyes turned to Michiru. She had remained quiet mainly to analyze her own information and to think about the demands in the letter more seriously. Being the next best tactical mind after Mercury, she was also married to a fairly unique ability of intuition that they could rely on. But in being spoken to before she had unclouded her thoughts, she had been condemned to start explaining her opinion.

"There really aren't a lot of hostage rescue scenarios we've tried or planned that would work in a situation like this…" Michiru started honestly "all we've got are specific demands to meet, and those are fairly predicable considering our circumstances"

"What do you mean?" Usagi asked, taking charge again.

"Well for one…he obviously drew up the demands around what he knew of us…"

"Which is?"

"He knows that alone and disorganized, we can be defeated…as he proved that himself last night…but he also knows that in a team we're harder to stop…" Michiru answered "so he set these conditions to favor his terms in one way…meaning he isn't confident in facing off with more than one senshi…and he's using a hostage situation to make sure he gets it that way…"

"Okay…so he is rigging the game…how do we get around that?" Makoto asked this time

"How we get around that… means we need to make a plan that makes him believe that Ami is alone...long enough for us to get close enough to get involved" Michiru replied coldly "which means for one of these things…Mercury will go alone…"

"But we can't leave Ami to them…" Usagi protested "there has to be a way to get through this"

"I don't want to but hear me out…"

Michiru started to explain it more carefully her proposed plan. The general conclusion she had come up with was a fairly complex idea, but in a few minutes it started to make sense to everyone for all the wrong reasons.

"Yeah…but how do we get around the whole part where we disguise ourselves" Makoto repeated again

"…and you can't be seriously thinking about leaving Ami alone that long" Minako added.

The room returned to silence again, the idea was flawed thought it wasn't the worst idea in the world. Even Michiru had to admit she didn't have an answer to that problem. Even with all the creative tricks, there was no way they'd be close enough in either senshi or civilian form.

"It's not going to work"

Everyone in the room turned when they heard Ami speak suddenly.

"Even with that plan, you're assuming that he hasn't already taken into account that we might do that…" Ami spoke "and Minako is right…with whatever forces he assembles…I can't possible survive a battle alone"

"I know…" Michiru said "but we can't even the odds for you before then…and we can't get involved too soon…"

Ami thought about it once again in her head, making sure she had figured it out for herself. Even with all the variables to the plan she had concocted, Ami couldn't believe she was about to suggest this idea. When everything fell into place, Ami started to speak

"…whatever moment you decide to get involved, it has to be sooner rather than later…the general knows that…and that's why I think he has already looked for a way to delay your entry into the battle"

"What? How would he do that?" Michiru asked, not seeing it for herself.

Ami tapped the letter again before explaining her own theory for the first time.

She'd been surprised how she had missed that minor detail on the letter until now, Ami couldn't relate what tipped her off exactly, but remembering the all too convenient location to stage this meeting played a role in that. When she had finished explaining the additional factor overlooked until now; everyone was amazed at the turn around Ami had done just then in overcoming her and then amazed at the insight to the plan, something that Michiru hadn't considered and probably wouldn't have.

"But how can you be certain?"

"This general person…knows that alone I cannot stand a chance…you said it yourself…" ami looked up at Michiru as she repeated what the latter had said before "…but we also have to consider that disregard the demands…he knows its possible that I might plan for backup…so he might have a plan to make sure my backup is distracted…just like last night"

Haruka and Michiru both nodded, remembering the exact reason now they had been defeated last night. Had their not been two raging battles at equal distances from Ami's apartment last night, there could have been a minimum of two senshi within seconds of response and Sailor moon several minutes away to provide backup. It made perfectly good sense in retrospect; their enemy had played to their typical response to any and all situations. In this situation, if Ami was correct, the general this time would use a shopping center full of people as additional hostages, which would provide a distraction worthy of the moment.

"That only makes things worse…" Rei spoke "if he's willing to do that, we wont be able to help you until we've dealt with that threat first"

"But…we can use that to our advantage" Ami declared.

"What?"

Ami started to explain the other part of her theory. To say that it wasn't risky at all would have been a jovial lie that everyone could have seen through, it was in fact very risky and it couldn't be easily implemented. After explaining her conclusion, Ami went on to provide words of explanation how to get around the technical details, the looks everyone gave wasn't very reassuring, despite how ingenious the idea was on paper. However, by the end of her explanation, everyone was on board with the idea.

"Well, I have to say it's a fairly interesting idea" Setsuna replied

"Can we do it?" Ami asked everyone

Usagi sat quiet thinking as best as she could about the plan. She wasn't a tactical genius or very good with complicated plans – even after Ami had summarized it – but even she saw the merits of the idea. So did everyone else and in a minute they all agreed to the proposal.

"Alright, we don't have much time…so let's get to work"

* * *

Her task wasn't exactly the easiest one to do, but it was one in that Denisa could do very well at it. The general could have easily assigned the twins to handle it, but they had other things to do right now that prevented them from doing this task. They're specialty was in the auto-troops, a commodity of force that would be needed tonight if all went according to plan, but she knew they wouldn't get to where they were needed without the automatic teleport watches she programmed. To a layman commander, the ability to bring back auto-troops once the mission was done didn't mean much to everyone else, but in reality, it meant that they could bring back auto-troops when their mission was completed versus the conventional disposal methods.

In this case was it had been necessary to recover them; the twins only had so much resources to build auto-troops with and despite the low losses from the previous night's battle; the team was running out of parts to build them, even as the twins built up the numbers for tonight, they would barely get thirty five or so up and running. There was a hope that reinforcements might come given the general's expectations about the battle tonight, but until then it was critical to save every last auto-troop for battle. Even with tonight's plan – which Denisa had already considered badly planned – there was a fundamental risk in loosing more auto-troops than they could afford to and even a held damaged one could live to fight another day.

The automatic teleport watches weren't all that much different from the regular ones, except that they could be remotely activated with a controller, which was something that Denisa also knew how to program. Synced in with the teleporting watch of a leader, one could teleport a platoon of auto-troops out or in at the same time as the leader. In a lot of cases this didn't work quite as planned, as in the case of Achen who landed in midair or when Denisa and Areazl landed in a basement instead of the roof, she reminded herself, teleporting watches weren't a perfected tool for transport. Denisa had only needed to think about the fate of Vita – despite it being on purpose – to know how deadly the effects could be.

Having confirmed her fate, Denisa quickly forgot about Vita, just like she had about Azreal and even Achen, and it didn't disturb her one bit that she found that quite satisfying. They were all dead now, Achen from simple incompetence as a self-proclaimed warrior leader and Azreal and Vita for leading the general with wrong suggestions and recommending actions that could doom their mission. That the general was continuing along with the plan that Azreal had first envisioned a week ago didn't seem to occur to her as much as one would suspect. In any case, after this mission, with the information they had, Denisa was adamant in believing she would get to follow her ideas from now on unopposed.

"Colonel?" Soyuz spoke from the hallway.

'…and now I'm being distracted…' Denisa muttered before turning to see him "What is it Soyuz…"

"I was asked by the general to get an update report" Soyuz half lied, he had sent Rin to ask the general to meet him at Denisa's quarters.

"I have five to go, now will you go back to interrogating the prisoner?"

"She is still not fully awake her…" Soyuz explained "it might take longer than we excepted…"

"You should have just done a full extraction and be done with it…" Denisa replied sourly "…the general is going to kill her later anyway"

"Well, he has plans for her, I don't know what…but I have to keep her alive for some reason"

Denisa snorted as she commonly at what she felt a stupid idea. One couldn't help but wonder what the general was thinking at times like this, but the Colonel presently calibrating watches didn't seem to agree well with the idea.

"Actually, I came for another reason as well…" Soyuz continued "…the general still isn't convinced about the explanation for the accident last night"

Denisa sighed at hearing that and turned her attention away from the work bench, knowing quite well that she would have to handle this.

"He should just accept the loss and get over it…" Denisa replied "I don't know why he is so angry about this one"

"Well…we lost our last intelligence officer…" Soyuz started before being cut off by Denisa

"She was a coward…and it's not my fault that she broke her own watch last night…" Denisa started to explain "…it's not my fault the battery didn't work the second time"

"The second time?"

It was at that moment that Soyuz knew for certain that Denisa was lying, or by sound her conviction, had forgotten the details herself. More than likely the latter he judged, Denisa could have told herself what she wanted to say so many times that it almost came automatic to her by the time her self involved suggestion came under scrutiny. It wasn't as fantastic a revelation as one might have expected, but Soyuz could tell that she had forgotten a critical detail from last night that her own explanation hadn't covered when she had thought up her explanation.

"The second time she used it…first time was from the rally point to that centre…and then the second one from the prisoner's home…"

Soyuz paused for a moment and waited for Denisa to recompose herself before he deflated her explanation and confirmed her guilt, for this reason he unconsciously felt for his dagger that all of them carried at all times.

"Is that so…" Soyuz replied

"You idiot, she had to use it, how else would she have gotten there?"

Soyuz breathed for a moment, seeing that she hadn't caught on yet and maybe buying himself time to reconsider this and wait for backup to arrive. But he judged in a split second he had to catch her in the act, not when she could explain it away with a new lie. Without thinking it further, he withdrew the small temporal hammer he had from his pocket.

"Very well…" Soyuz paused a beat before continuing on "I suppose you wouldn't know anything about this then…"

"What is it?" Denisa asked with part acid tone and part curiosity "I can't see it from here"

"It's a temporal percussion hammer" Soyuz replied "I found it outside"

Until now, Denisa had no idea why her instinct had spiked when he had turned his attention to the subject of the missing intelligence officer. At first, her speculation hadn't kicked in, only wondering why Soyuz would even ask about this, but it suddenly changed when he mentioned what he had found. Denisa couldn't see it from this distance, but its mere mention from Soyuz reminded her of what really killed the intelligence officer. In the seconds after her realization, Denisa had gone on to wonder if Soyuz had come to the same conclusion himself and her sudden explanation only looked like hesitation to Soyuz.

"It's broken, so I threw it out"

"With the spring still attached?"

Denisa wasn't good at maintaining rationality in situations, despite her rank and title as an officer of the kingdom. When cornered on any matter and in any situation, her instincts took over and so did her paranoia, which immediately started to ask questions about how Soyuz had come to suspect him of this act. Her questions however would be answered in soon enough.

"Denisa you forgot something…" Soyuz took a step back "we arrived to the rally point early so Colonel Vita could approach the hospital without using the teleport watch…so how could it have been the battery like you kept insisting it was?"

Colonel Denisa froze at hearing the truth, comparing it to what she had said and found that her own excuse had completely failed to explain what had happened. At that moment Denisa realized what she had walked herself into when she had explained her own interpretation of events, forgetting that it was Soyuz who was more expert in interrogations and getting the truth out. With that in mind, Denisa wondered where she stood right now in the greater scheme of things and how she would be able to cover herself. That the general himself wasn't here was all the assurance her paranoia could give her right now and that ultimately contributed the assumption that would take her over the edge.

'Just maybe…before he comes I can…' Denisa thought in the split second as she pulled her dagger and lunged for Soyuz.

He had seen it coming and reacted accordingly, but unfortunately, this was where he placed himself at great risk. One on one combat with Denisa was not something he had hoped to encounter, but Soyuz was not as stupid to not come prepared for the possibility. In a split second the Colonel lanced his own Dagger out and blocked the killing blow that Denisa had hoped to land before he had the chance to defend himself. He got it out in time to stop her dagger from killing him so soon, but the momentum of her attack alone didn't stop him falling backwards to the floor where he couldn't move.

Soyuz's instant reaction to being pinned down was to floor kick his opponent off her legs and in doing so, roll her off the side. It allowed an escape to which he could regain distance and prepare to counter attack her next move. Once on her feet, Denisa lunched forward, raising her arm in a wild gesture, aiming to implant the dagger in his skull. But Soyuz flinched and he caught her arm as it arced over her head and came down to land on its intended target. To counterbalance her attack, he brought his own dagger around to stab her in the chest but was caught; very much like had just done himself with her own weapon. In a second the two were holding each other off with a breath's distance separating them

"Just tell me Soyuz…" Denisa's voice had broken into the tone that she left for rampaging "…why should it matter that she is gone…she was leading us down the wrong track…"

Using the distracted pause as an advantage, Denisa regained the edge when she suddenly used her leg to unbalance him just like had done to escape the grasp of her initial attack. The effect on him was almost fatal except for Denisa's dagger being in the wrong place to continue the attack, however it did disarm Soyuz and in a moment he was pinned to the floor again and this time unable to defend himself. He had seen what he had needed to see of Denisa and knew that now it was all up to how long she would take to kill him

"So what am I going to say…" Denisa asked, knowing his reply would be his last words "…when he asks about why I had to kill you…"

"I would suspect you will come up with another flawed lie…" Soyuz commented "besides I don't think it'll help you in any case"

Denisa ignored the implied message – that might've been understood had she been more rational of mind – and lunched her dagger towards his neck. It barely travelled halfway down from the stance she had held it at before its holder froze in place from the piecing pain in her back. Denisa reacted like anyone would, paused in fear at the feeling and wondering how it could have come, her first initial thought upon feeling the pain was to look around at what Soyuz had used, but at the same time noticed that Soyuz hadn't done it, Denisa had seen the metal bar of sharpened steal coming out of her own chest, covered in blood.

The hand holding the dagger felt limp and released it as she too started to feel the unending pain that came from knowing she was dying. Eventually, and as the metal bar that stolen her victory had removed itself from her body, it signaled her collapse and Denisa fell to the floor and to the side of the still alive Colonel Soyuz. He had barely missed being stabbed by the dagger, having its blunt side on his chest. When he was sure that body of Colonel Denisa had stopped moving he didn't hesitate to pull her body off his and stand again.

"Are you alright?" the general simply asked

"Yes sir…" Soyuz merely replied

The general stood there, a step and a half in front of Ren, both of whom had raced with him to the scene of the apparent struggle. He held his sword, soaked in the blood of an officer who had killed others of the same uniform, wondering if he would ever forgive the injustice of his ignorance to the traitor under his command. It was a hard feeling to forget, especially since it had been Colonel Denisa who had gone out of her way with the others to unfreeze him and bring him back into the world of the living again. That her loyalty had gone a distance too far, in the form of eliminating opposing opinion had undermined all of his respect for her.

Composing his memory of events and realizing how ironic now that the words Soyuz had warned previous night made sense, the general had to now move on and continue to lead.

"Colonel, resume interrogating the subject as soon as you can…" the general ordered "…we have little time to waste now"

"Yes sir"

* * *

They didn't spend much time on planning merely due to the limited amount of it they had to start with. Barely thirty minutes of time had passed before Rei and Makoto were the first to leave, briefly changing into Mars and Jupiter respectively to make their trip faster. The others all left in short order, in Usagi and Minako's case because of their needs to attend their necessitated appearances with their respective families. Setsuna and the other outers had returned home, to first of all get some long overdue sleep and prepare for the night ahead, which for Hotaru had come just a little too hard to do. The departures of everyone had quickly emptied the Mizuno household of guests, and very soon Ami was alone with herself and her thoughts again.

Having nothing else to do, except sleep – like she had promised everyone she would do –while they carried out arranging her plan, Ami couldn't help but resist having a nap while things were going on, even thought she knew better. With nothing to do though, Ami had looked for something to delay her inevitable afternoon snooze. First among those things was cleaning up the mess that the house had become. What Saeko had started a day ago, Ami had finished now, changing the bed sheets, washing the laundry and as a result of this morning's activities, cleaning the living room and kitchen, the latter of which had nearly been depleted of food by her visitors.

Meals that first were for just her, Minako and her mother the night before had ended up being used to feed just about everyone, first Makoto and Hotaru for breakfast, followed soon after by Rei, Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna, all of whom had needed a large breakfast in facilitate taking part in the successful but – admittedly to themselves – pointless raid on the warehouse. A short trip the store fixed that problem, though Ami had been limited in her purchasing power, mainly by how much she could carry back without her friends to help. She could have asked for someone to help her with the groceries, but it felt to mundane a task, considering the situation going on around them.

They all had their roles to play right now, with only Jupiter and Mars doing anything at all to prepare for this evening. Their discussion about what they had to do had taken up most of the time they had to plan, but it was hopefully well worth the effort if Ami's assumptions were correct. What was left of their meeting had focused on looking for flaws in the plan that Ami had crafted, all of which had to admit was their only viable solution if her conclusions were right. The only real fear that had come out of the meeting was the idea of being tracked, like they had apparently done to find Ami's mother.

Getting around the problem was easily accomplished however and protocols for looking for stalking people had been established, for Mars and Jupiter, merely roof jumping was enough to escape any enemy, but for the others a more careful check was requited wherever they went. That this flaw weighed heavily on the plan Ami had set out overtook most of the worry the others had about the wellbeing of Ami's mother, but for Ami alone, it only increased the weight of the situation further. It was her plan that was being placed into effect and as much as she didn't want to place her own guesses on the line, Michiru's plan wasn't any better than hers.

After cleaning the home and the restocking the constantly depleting fridge, Ami had finally succumb to the need to sleep and did so surprisingly considerably better than the others and she had feared. She dreamt of nothing, she had no nightmares and she thought of nothing; amazing considering the circumstances that she had been weighed upon her shoulders tonight, but as Makoto had related to her before, people could get tired of worrying too. After four hours of such sleep, Ami had a woken to see the light through her windows fading and the time starting to come closer to the deadline meeting.

"It's already past five…" Ami spoke to herself as she disrobed for the shower.

It hadn't occurred to her until now that she hadn't bathed in over a day. Her last opportunity had been the morning before at Rei's home at the temple. Minako's surprise visit had negated the chance for an early evening shower and the events of the past twenty four hours since had quietly set aside her usually excellent personal hygiene. Now facing a potential battle with her mother being held hostage, Ami only felt it necessary to at least clean herself before heading out, if anything in a lasting bit of vanity towards her enemy.

The warm water as always felt good on her back and even the feeling of breathing in the steam to clear her senses felt more stirring than the feeling of waking up in bed. It almost felt as good as a shoulder massage from Makoto, whom had loosened the tension in her back before she had left again. It had been a good effort on her friend's part to help Ami calm down and relax, but Ami was no fool in admitting with irony how soon her body would tense up again when she donned her second identity again to do battle.

Knowing that this was potential the last chance to enjoy this feeling, Ami took full advantage of it and just stood there embracing her own warm body while the moist air clung to her and used gravity to drop away again, once it had taken with it dried sweat from her previous day and a half of tension. When Ami felt she could no longer stay in the shower, she turned the knobs to stop the warm wet blanket of water and stepped outside to dry up.

Once dried, Ami exchanged her white towel for undergarments, where she stood only wearing for several minutes until she had decided what to wear for tonight's trip. Once again a degree of vanity had taken over for Ami and she felt it necessary to prepare properly, which for some reason meant wearing clothing that was both unsuspicious, which wasn't really a problem, warm, since it was getting cold outside and if it came to it, easy to run in. Eventually Ami found something suitable and donned them as soon as possible – It was also cold in her room – before she announced herself ready for the night.

On her desk, laid out like a display were the simple things that a girl always carried for her age; purse, keys, train card along with more unconventional items like her micro-computer and her heshin stick. Ami elected against a bag – despite how strange that would appear – and pocketed all the items on her person. Once done she made a quick but unrequited check of herself to be sure everything was on her, and double sure that her Heshin stick was exactly where it was suppose to be. When that minor task was done, Ami left her room for a final time and entered the kitchen.

For the first time since this whole series of incidents started, Ami dined alone, and ate accordingly. A microwavable meal wasn't the most filling, or healthy, or appetizing thing she could have picked to make, but Ami had argued to herself several hours ago in the store about the point of a cooked meal, and had come down on the side that decided not to make a mess of the apartment she had just cleaned. The meal was also quick since by now she had less than three hours to make it over to the Juban Super center and it was assumed that most of that time would be spent just getting there.

When the garbage was disposed and everything cleaned up and put away, Ami took one last look around the apartment to make sure everything was in order. Everything was the way it was suppose to be and should be for a typical day, minus the mess that came from everyday life at the Mizuno residence. The only thing left for Ami to do was to change her dry board message to indicate when she left, which despite the pointlessness of the task, she did without complaint. Ami didn't look up at the phone, knowing there was no messages waiting for her to hear and left the kitchen without checking.

"Well mom…the house is clean…everything is put away…and I hope when this is all over…" Ami thought aloud "…you'll come home to this"

With those final words, Ami turned and went to the foyer. Exchanging her slippers for her shoes took only a half minute of her time and in a minute Ami exited the apartment, not for a moment looking back until she closed the door. She locked the apartment like she had done so for every day she had lived here and walked away. She had been lucky to leave now, had Ami waited another five minutes, she might've been forced to answer the phone call that came and went to the answering machine instead.

"Doctor Mizuno, this is Mei…can you ring us back when you get the chance, you were suppose to come into work four hours ago …where are you?"

* * *

Soyuz's attempt at getting anything else out Saeko had been fairly unsuccessful and her proven stubbornness from the last time only made use of the orb a second time a certainly after only an hour of her dodging his enquiries about the identity of the fourth and final sailor senshi present at the battle last night. The only information she had been willing to hand over was in clarifying the information on Hotaru Tomoe, but even then, she had been surprised to learn of the inconsistency in the records herself and had even relayed her own thoughts about what it could mean which only made things more confusing.

Eventually after he had expended his patience again and had decided that she was not going to hand over the name he really wanted, Soyuz used the orb again and the name of Sailor Uranus was exposed as Haruka Tenoh. It proved a two fold mistake, first his captive was unconscious again which would exclude any chance of interrogating her again, and to his misfortune, it turned out there was no record of a Haruka Tenoh that appeared on any database. He couldn't doubt the technology that Vita and Azreal had stolen, but he also couldn't believe that the technology they had stolen had limits on the information they had at their disposal. But the error message had explained it all, even to Soyuz who didn't even have notes from Vita to work from.

At once, the interrogation was finished and the general re-tasked Soyuz to finish the jobs that needed to be finished before they left. Denisa's demise as a traitor had left a fairly gaping hole in their plans, which the general deeply regretted. With her gone, only three of his men were alive still and that was barely enough if the senshi decided to group up anyway, which he had every reason to believe would happen, despite his warnings to Sailor Mercury. He had – like Ami had, unknown to him, predicted – a plan to deal with that however, and it was all he had to hope for in this upcoming battle. If he played it right and finished it quick, he could land a victory on one or two senshi and retreat again.

And with luck, word of the victory would spread out to the kingdom remnants and upon hearing of his return and his achievement, would start funneling resources to him so he could complete the proven goal of wiping out the senshi. It was a noble goal, but the general couldn't think too far ahead of himself now, he had to win the battle. And so when he walked into the basement where they would teleport into battle – something that required had unnecessary double checking – his mind had completely buried unnecessary thoughts.

His remaining colonels; barely half of the number had when he started this mission; waited on for their general to speak. Like before, it was his word they followed and unlike their traitorous counterpart – now since disposed of – they would follow his orders faithfully.

"Colonels, the mission we're about to undertake will determine the future of our planet. If we win, as I reminded you last night…we stand a good chance at turning the tide of this war against a resurgent Moon kingdom and their oligarchy planet states" the general started "but if we lose tonight…and we loose to the Senshi…then there will be nothing to keep in check our enemy"

All of them tensed at that statement, knowing it was completely true.

"Ever since our queen…no…ever since the kingdom defeated them so many centuries ago, we have maybe forgotten the reasons why we took up arms against their cruel and selfish monarchy" the general started again "but as I always ask every man and woman who wears this uniform should know the answer to this question; Why do we call ourselves the dark kingdom?"

"Because we were left in the dark while they took our dawn, our day and our dusk" Soyuz responded loudly

The general started to pace silently as he spoke.

"…from long the day I was born, I was merely a serf to the gluttonous and incompetent monarchy in the sky…a monarchy who abused their magic and held back our development for the sake of exploiting our resources and your brothers, your fathers, and his father's labor… and yet we were forced to commit ourselves to the moon kingdom as though they were gods…"

All of them nodded, while not being alive themselves during the silver millennium, they knew quite well the tales of the moon kingdom's control over earth back in those days. Only their general, who had risen through the ranks and had even been so close to leading the army to take the moon itself – before his rapid decent into mortality-frozen exile – knew of the stories first hand.

"But then we raised our army, we led ourselves under our own leadership and we became powerful on our own…but for the foolish lust our last queen had…we might have been able to overthrow the moon's monarchy and become our own masters!"

The general calmed down before he went on, as an orator of speeches, it had been awhile since he had to rally troops. The generally concluded his speech on a somber note "Tonight we…all of us stand as the last hope against stopping the monarchy which once enslaved us from rising again…our brethren have tried to formulate plans in the past and have failed…now its our turn…if we cant stop what our enemy is trying to bring back, then earth will stand helpless in the reign of a lunar monarchy, and we will never be our own masters again"

All of them nodded, concerned about the outcome if they failed. For sure they would be hunted down and the true story of the Moon kingdom's atrocities forever silenced. The moon kingdom would be rebuilt and with all the senshi alive, so would the oligarchy of planets originally blessed with their own senshi and the status of being above that of earth. It was as noble a goal as any to them to die for if they could prevent it.

"Prepare to deploy!" the general ordered

"Yes Sir!" they all shouted.

* * *

Much like the rest of the city, Juban was a fairly crowded place at this time of day, even with the fall of the sun into early evening; there were still people out doing all manner of things for all manner of reasons. Even as the last of the salary men and women exited office towers and journeyed home to their families or – In the younger examples – to bars and night clubs, more people were venturing into the city to add their mass to the crowds that formed around popular meeting places. It was a social activity that the elderly had abhorred, children didn't understand, but business retailers fully enjoyed, as crowds ranging from couples to groups of persons occupied every amenity from karaoke bars to movie theaters, with shops and bars in between.

But unlike any other night, tonight there was an addition to the usual crowds that habituated this ritual social moray. More couples than usual were present for the occasion tonight and parents were shopping for last minute gifts and various things for the holiday tomorrow. It was Christmas Eve today, and like every other major shopping district in the city, the commercial precinct around the Juban super center, in addition to the same number of usual night goers, had their numbers padded by couples on dates and crowds of people celebrating in their own unique way.

Ami hadn't quite forgotten about it, but the events of the last week had allowed her to put this event aside in light of more important concerns. The close succession of three battles combined with the disclosure her secret identity to her now kidnapped mother had suppressed Ami's usual concerns and thoughts that she usually associated with her daily routine. En-route to the shopping center however, the lapse in things to consider gave Ami the chance to explore those concerns once again and one such item that came to mind – in light of remembering the significance of today – had been what she would do for Christmas if her mother was working that day.

It had been the one thought that merited long reflection and it didn't take long for Ami to realize that this very concern seemed to have started all of this. If fate was a woman Ami reckoned, she would have had a fairly vindictive personality it seemed. Originally denying her mother the chance to be home for Christmas, the compromise fate had given had instead been a mixed blessing as it had forced Ami to reveal Sailor Mercury to her. The subsequent events that followed merely were the aftermath of that one event and now Ami was anticipating a battle tonight that involved rescuing her mother, that it was Christmas Eve only seemed to be a stark coincidence.

There was really not a lot words to think about at times like this, except the ones that came to your mind when faced with an unexpected situation, where the outcome you wanted would be very difficult to get. Few words described the despairing situation that Ami found herself in and the only solace – or more accurately protection – Ami could give was to ignore those words and concentrate now on the mission. Even in the time transiting from home to here, Ami didn't spend a moment longer thinking about the irony of fate or letting her deepest doubts fester again. Lingering doubts were the greatest enemy to her right now, and as she walked amongst the crowds towards the Juban Super center, Ami's focus was squarely aimed at her surroundings.

There were a lot of people out and how many would be inside the building when this impending battle took place? It had been the focus of discussion among the senshi earlier in the day, ever since Ami's revelation that had identified the delaying tactic the general might use. A building several floors high, with a cinema, bowling alley, at least three karaoke bars in addition to the over one hundred stores that would be occupied with late night shoppers. The number of people in addition the number of hiding spots would make any attempt to locate the robots ahead of their use near impossible. But that was exactly what the other senshi were tasked to do right now, even as Ami was approaching the building; unbeknownst to her the others were already discreetly searching the building the possible locations that robots might already be hiding in.

That minor detail was the only thing that Ami wasn't full aware of, she knew that they would be hiding somewhere near the juban super center, but wasn't aware that after their meeting, a minor alteration in the plans was created. Instead of waiting for it to happen, the senshi would go on the offensive and try to isolate the robots before they had the chance to attack. It wasn't the perfect plan since they didn't have the tactical wisdom of Ami help them look for the most likely points but under the circumstances it was a fairly adequate plan. The only risk in the plan if there was one was if Ami herself ran across any of them by accident, both blowing the surprise – if the enemy was indeed watching – and taking away the honest level of ignorance that Ami really depended on when she eventually met with the general.

Despite that consideration, the decision to leave Ami uninformed of this was a fairly difficult choice to make, but despite their reasons to contrary, there was no chance in turning back now the first pair spotted Ami approaching the center. Haruka and Michiru had been standing around, looking quite like the literally dozens of couples that were perched on a pedestrian overpass starring at the crowds below, except their gaze had for last half hour been more focused looking for the lurking danger – rather than romantically into each other's eyes – before they spotted Ami. They hadn't been deliberately looking for Ami, but knowing where she was had the distinct advantage of helping both avoid running into Ami by accident.

Michiru had cheated a bit in using her precognition to work out which direction Ami was walking and after confirming visually that she would cross the street at ground level, the two of them observed closely until Ami disappeared from sight by taking the large escalators up to the shopping center. After confirming that, Haruka and Michiru conferred on a topic any eavesdropper would've found curious.

"I don't feel anything out here…I can definitely feel something on the roof though"

"Then lets try in there for now" Haruka gestured to the cinema complex entrance.

Michiru and walked off with Haruka, playing up her role as a daring girlfriend to the effeminate looking boyfriend, deciding to see a movie with her. The bottom floor was in its own right a maze of passages that led to the bowling alley and at least three karaoke bars and night clubs, all of which the two knew they would have to carefully search before any robots commenced their attack.

* * *

"So I'm finally here" Ami spoke to herself.

Nobody would've heard her even if she had tried to scream it out, and she wasn't really interest in announcing her presence anyway. Right now Ami had reached the top of the escalator and found herself on the first floor of the shopping center complex and in the section of the building dedicated to bakeries, delicatessens and all manner of food stores that at the moment serviced people buying last minute items for tomorrow and party savories for right now. It wasn't really a section so much as it was the entire first floor of the shopping center, which was dedicated to stores selling food and even takeout in the case of the food court located on the same level.

The shopping center was a fairly large part of the overall building in its own right and the layout of the malls resembled a fairly out of proportion T with a large circular food court built around the bottom. While confusing the uninitiated, the general layout of the center was easy to understand once you worked it out. From here, Ami could continue on the first floor, through the food section before turning left and down towards the food court, or she could take the escalator 'stack' right in front of her up to the second or third floor where the boutiques, banks as well as department, electronic and specialty stores were all located. Ami decided that with thirty minutes before her meeting, she would continue her journey on the first floor for the time being.

Chief among the products being sold tonight were Christmas cakes and outside every bakery all along the mall was a combination of people and signs tempting buyers to purchase their products for their holiday meal tomorrow. Like any commercial enterprise in this part of the world, being loudest and most noticeable was the paramount advantage to succeeding in selling a product and so the echoing sound of hand held bells being rung and shouting that resulted from such attempts merely added of the cacophony of noises that vertebrate within the confines of a shopping center. Most people hired for this job are usually part-timers looking for a little extra money to buy something for the next day or for a date later in the night.

While one couldn't accurately guess which store was doing the best tonight – since the aim was simply to sell all the cakes – the one that had employed a pair of young and cheerful university students was doing agreeably well. Feminine appeal was always a major advantage for fairly obvious reasons, but this pair had more than attractive looks to work with, for a pair of students, they knew the lingo pretty well enough to attract the attention of potential buyers and their customer service skills were more than admirable. That neither student was even eighteen yet had escaped notice, even to the store owner, who had been fairly convinced by their supposed maturity to negate having proof of age shown.

The only person who could've recognized them for who they really were however never got any closer than a casual glance from the other side hallway. Ami's attention was focused at looking for supposed threats, and the additional crowd numbers obscuring their faces from a distance only ensured she never noticed them at all. After a few more minutes, Ami was beyond any hope of noticing Minako and Makoto just as they were just as happy to not notice her at all. By this point Ami realized that walking around on the first floor was a mistake, if anything because of the crowds making her traversing around impossible, and Ami's inability to see anything beyond several meters only confirmed her need to make for a higher floor.

Turning the corner at the central intersection and up first one, then a second escalator, Ami found herself on the top floor, which apart from the mix of specialty stores, was just under the roof. Above her was a partial mix of glass skylights – that ran down the length and width of the mall's canyon like voids – and overhead lights that substituted for sunlight at during the evening. From here, looking down from this height was an advantage, but like all buildings of this type the general layout of the mall was a disadvantage. Ami could easily see more things than before which were helpful in searching for oddities faster, but she couldn't see directly below her or in obscure spots on the first floor. Realizing the futility of searching either way, Ami continued along the mall walkway towards the food court.

Located at the bottom of the distorted T, the food court was a large open space on the first floor that catered to two dozen vendors. Not covered by upper floors which might have obstructed the view above, the eatery sported three massive television sets on the far wall and was in the daytime lit under a glass dome that while only half its size, almost negated the need for the lights. From here, Ami could look down and see everything, the stores, the advertisements that played on the television screens and the literally hundreds of people crowding around stores to buy food. The only problem if there was one was that in having so many people present, it degraded the ability for Ami to make out individual faces from this distance.

Like before, the inability to make out individual people at a controlled pace made the task Ami had tried impossible without the aid of her computer, which she couldn't use here anyway. In a less crowded situation, Ami might've been able to spot anomalies better, but for the moment she had to resign to the fact that alone, there wasn't much she could do anyway. Turning around, Ami left the part of the balcony she had been standing by, much to the collective relief of three more senshi who unlike her, could just as easily spot one person standing alone better than seeing one person among hundreds. Like the other two located elsewhere on the same floor, their deep concern over if Ami would spot them lingered until the moment one of their number saw her

To that end, their concern became outright fear the moment they spotted Ami and the three of them reacted. Usagi had hunched her head down, while Rei and Hotaru merely had turned their backs to where Ami had been standing. While all three of them waited pensively, hoping for the brief period that Ami had failed to notice them while looking down at the food court. The moment passed however and when Usagi – with one eye cracked towards the escalator stack – didn't see Ami at all anymore, they breathed a collective sigh of relief and returned to their original posture of pretending to be three teenage girls having a meal together.

Upstairs, Ami started walking back towards the central intersection, and accidently picked up a stalker – in the most liberal term of the definition – on the way. She had been walking out a store blindly when the woman dressed in the typical attire for office clothes found herself right behind Ami. In a fairly rigid and an almost spontaneous – which was quite unlike her – motion, Setsuna managed to turn around and increase the distance. In a further attempt to avoid Ami, she made her way across the nearest bridge onto the other side of the canyon like void where, it was hoped, Ami wouldn't notice her.

Thinking herself in the clear, Setsuna resumed walking along the mall in a parallel direction to Ami. When it became apparently clear that the both of them ran the risk of running into each other again, Setsuna choose a store at random and entered it. The timing of her decision couldn't have been better since moments after she had disappeared; Ami stopped to look inwards at the pocket monster display at the toy store. Amie had done so, both to entertain her curiosity at new fad in a brief moment of levity and at the same time to shake the feeling that she had been followed somehow. When Ami had decided that the feeling that she felt was just her own paranoia, Ami set off again and eventually turning around the corner to her left, away from Setsuna.

* * *

Several minutes after Ami had made her departure, Setsuna emerged from the store after expressing interest at buying a dress for her pseudo daughter – who had incidentally briefly visited the store as a sailor senshi recently – before deciding that the formal gowns that were on offer were a bit too much for her still young Hotaru to wear. After making sure this time that Ami was not waiting outside the store, Setsuna casually walked, first towards the food court, then over the same bridge before doubling back and blessing herself on deciding to do the most dangerous aspect of their mission alone.

If anyone had been close enough, or curious enough, one might have heard one of the two shopping bags that the woman was carrying mutter coherent words. None the less, Setsuna responded, despite how weird it was for her to talk to her bags.

"I don't see her around"

"Then lets do the drop off now before she comes back this way" the one in her right hand spoke.

Setsuna nodded and walked forward. She had chosen the place earlier for its cental locale and easy camouflage. Along the pathways were several boxed gardens that were used as decorations. At the toy store that Ami had stopped outside moments before, Setsuna pretended to need to sit down and rest for a moment and dropped down onto a bench conveniently located in front of one of the very large garden boxes. As though by accident, she dropped her bags at the same time, both of them falling to the floor and their tops pointed inward. After a second or two to see if anyone was looking, Setsuna used her foot to slide them under the bench before standing again and ostensibly forgetting to pick up her bags.

Once Setsuna was gone, Artemis and Luna escaped from their convenient transport and jumped into the garden box to hide. Because the former had the least helpful fur color for hiding in dark green foliage, he stayed hidden in the center while the latter, with black fur which best suited, stayed on the edge, eying for potential threats to call in. Between them they had a single communicator – Sailor Moon's for this mission – to call in anything they saw. With their arrival, everyone was in place, bar Setsuna who would continue to rove the building until something happened. Until then however, Luna's main concern was being discovered by anyone, especially children, who after all noticed things that adults might ignore.

* * *

Ami didn't know about where the cats were, or that they were even here at all along with all eight fellow senshi, just that with five minutes to go, it was time to meet with the general. Having spent a few minutes looking at television sets in a department store window, Ami decided to make her way to the roof. There were only two places one could do that, from the service lift halfway towards the food court and the lift well near the center of the intersection. While the former was more helpful in disguising her transformation, it would be hard to obtain access to them. With very little choice in the matter, Ami proceeded to walk towards the latter option.

She entered the lift foyer for this floor and unlike that fateful night a week before, Ami entered a lift on the far right, having really picked it due to the order in which it arrived first. Finding it empty of people, Ami also realized a moment later that the camera in this elevator car was missing. A moment passed, where Ami couldn't tell if it was deliberate or just pure luck, though in the end she concluded it did simplify the one matter she hadn't quite worked out until now. Having no access to the service lift, Ami couldn't work out a safe place to transform, but with this awfully convenient moment to, Ami didn't wait a second longer after the doors closed.

Fishing the henshin stick out of her pocket, she said the words that unlocked her alternate form and in a few seconds Ami Mizuno became Sailor Mercury once again. Like always, the feeling of transformation was accompanied with a strange tingling sensation that bathed her body for a moment before the feeling of her senshi uniform replaced it. The admittedly comfortably feeling was one that all of them knew about and had attested different words to describe it, which in the case Sailor Mercury, was like lukewarm water brushing against her skin while her uniform replaced her normal clothing.

Once transformed however, she opened her eyes, knowing at once she was no longer a civilian and seeing the elevator was about to open the doors again. When it did so, Mercury received another kind of cold chill, but this one wasn't met with the same feelings that transforming allowed her to have. Having nothing else to do, Sailor Mercury stepped outside the elevator car and scanned her immediate surroundings. Right in front of her was the exit which led outside to the roof and without a word, Sailor Mercury walked forward, into the open and cold December evening, unflinching at the weather that had promised to bring the first fall of snow later in the night.

The roof of the Juban Super center was a fairly complex assortment of items. Beyond the usual array of pipes for air conditioners and alike, it also included a miniature golf course, a partially enclosed driving range, and a fairly large radio and telephone reception tower that the building provided the base for. Mercury's observations of her surroundings were fairly quickly established, both getting a feel for the battlefield-to-be and the more obvious task of locating the general. To her left was the glass dome for the food court and the skylights that lit up the pathway between it and the central intersection which had a far smaller – but still equally impressive – glass dome, on either side of the yellow and white line of lights shining from inside were the largest array of air conditioners that could fit on this roof top to control the inside environment of a massive shopping center.

Separating the air conditioners from the roof top entertainment and where Mercury was standing was another row of skylights that traced the length of the two malls that made up the top of the T. Finally, the miniature golf course and the driving range – which was actually located on the opposite side of the lift well to the right – was right in front of Mercury with the radio tower just behind it.

"So good for you to come…Sailor Mercury"

She had spotted him just as she had identified where he and his people were. Standing beyond the far edge of the miniature golf course, but in front the radio tower was the person she was looking for, General Kovomeyer.

"General Kovomeyer" Mercury breathed

Without prompting, Mercury jumped down the small flight of steps to the ground level for the miniature golf course and made her way over to the General. At once from behind and to her sides, robots made their presence known as the stepped out from behind pillars, the little shop that catered this golf course, or from the roof of the lift well itself. Mercury was completely surrounded by not just robots she soon realized, but two dark kingdom colonels, whom she instantly recognized as the ones who had captured her mother.

"I must commend you on a job well done for tracking down our hideout…" the general spoke kindly, knowing they had if she had come here at all "unfortunately it wasn't quite the time for us to meet again…Sailor Mercury…or do you prefer Ami Mizuno?"

Mercury still flinched at the hearing her civilian name, though she managed to hide her emotions this time in front of the general. It was hard enough to do that however, after realizing the circumstances that led to her real identity being discovered. The indignant remark about their successful, if somewhat useless raid on the warehouse was almost too much to bear however and Mercury quickly covered ground onto the topic that was more important to her.

"Okay, I kept up my end of the deal" Mercury simply asked, not trying at all now in denying it "now where is my mother?"

The general only had to motion his hand skywards for Mercury to look up and see where Saeko had been tied up to the radio mast. She was not moving, though from the distant look, she was only unconscious. Mercury couldn't hide her reaction and it showed on her face while the general kept his cool, noting how easy his opponent had been distracted. It wasn't much, though he had to side with some understanding at her apparent concern for a blood relative. Even if she hadn't quite informed her about everything she did in that senshi outfit.

"Her body is not use to teleporting around" the general explained offhandedly "as you can see; she is merely passed out for now…its better this way I think though"

Mercury didn't reply with words, with her face, with any movement. If there was anything that could still work against her right now, it would be her emotions for the moment. Mercury couldn't let that work against her at all.

"In any case sailor mercury" the general went on "I must also thank you for obliging to the second demand in coming alone…"

"We took your threat seriously" Mercury simply said, delivering the line she had prepared to say "to insure the safety of my mother…the others agreed"

The general had also practiced how he would approach this conversation for several hours prior to now and thus far had easily predicted the response that sailor mercury would give him, until now that is. He was of course not fooled by the wording from Mercury; she had just implied something, as though there was an ambush in place. He was correct in that assessment, but incorrect in its method. Either way he had anticipated this and already had the ideal insurance to prevent that.

"That is good to hear…though just in case your friends change their mind…" the general spoke before turning serious "I have a reinforced squad of my auto troops ready to teleport in and kill everyone inside this building…if even one of them comes close to interrupting our little meeting"

'I thought as much…' Mercury thought 'I just hope he hasn't worked out the rest yet'

That was the only trump card Mercury had to play and her uncertainty if it would work matched with the fact she would only have one chance to use it combined to make her outward concern appear to the general as though she were truly alone in this.

"In any case…" the general continued to speak "I wouldn't want to have any distractions during our negotiations"

"Negotiations?"

"Yes…as Sailor Mercury…you are also princess mercury am I mistaken?" the general continued on "If so…then you are qualified to speak on the behalf of your dominion monarchy…in agreeing to our terms for your collective surrender"

The declaration by the general hung in the air like a bad stench, despite the cold winter air that was already freezing their breaths. Had Sailor mercury not received a briefing on who general Kovomeyer was earlier in the day, his delivered line would've sounded absurd considering all he had done to get her here.

"On what conditions is this surrender?" Mercury asked, only because she wanted to know what the general was referring to when he said that. It was a fairly foolish thing to say, though it did no damage to her stance.

"I have a fairly simple list of demands actually" the general started to elaborate "the surrender of your senshi powers, your title and an agreement that you and your dominion monarchy will not stand in the way of the dark kingdom's eradication of the moon kingdom…in return for which you will get your mother back and a promise that you will not be harmed"

"…but others will?" Mercury asked the most obvious question.

"In a manner of speaking, yes" the general spoke calmly "I will make the offer of course to Minako Aino, Haruka Tenoh, Hotaru Tomoe and all the others in due time…but if any of you refuse then…I'm sad to say I cannot let you live any longer…its the mission of the dark kingdom…my mission…to see that the moon kingdom never returns"

Mercury flinched at hearing the names of her fellow senshi's civilian identities, both ashamed at the vulnerability they now faced and further ashamed at knowing where they got those names from. Her mother wasn't awake – as a microsecond glance to sky confirmed – for any of this, and Mercury wondered why. Maybe as the general said from her transit shock or maybe because if the general had to kill Mercury, he was being merciful so far as to not let her mother see her daughter's death. What was certain with even having to feel her mother's empathy, she had felt deep shame in being forced to hand over those names.

"I'm not sure what you've heard, or what you remember from before… we are not the people you think we are…" Mercury turned finally replied "...and only Sailor moon speaks for all of us…and she wouldn't even think of agreeing to those terms!"

The general had his answer he knew, knowing now thought his own intuition that despite the odds he had created to prevent bloodshed, he would have to do what he had tried to avoid. His proposal had been reasonable after all and it allowed Mercury to leave with what she had come for without risking her life. But instead, Mercury…Ami Mizuno had chosen to remain loyal to a not yet reborn kingdom over the material bond between mother and child, proof in his mind that she was beyond reasoning with.

"Is that so…" the general spoke "I thought as much before this meeting…considering your actions…Mercury's historic loyalty to the Silver Millennium…Sailor Mercury…do you really think you I will stand by and let the moon kingdom return to power?"

"You're basing your entire campaign against us on what happened a long time ago…" Mercury replied "things have changed…and the old kingdom is gone…the new kingdom will be different!"

"You're are as proficient a liar as all Mercurians were in your time" the general replied loudly "…in the time of the Silver Millennium…you made empty promises, manipulated your own laws, you circumvented all the rights of your own subjects, refused to admit your errors…and most important of all refused to deal with us…or anyone who didn't submit to your authority as equals…"

Mercury remained rigid and calm, realizing how soon she would find herself in combat.

"…I will not risk it. As an earth born human with the flesh and blood of a human…I will not surrender our future to the empty promises of a mercurian princess in front of me…who protects the very kingdom that suppressed our development, stole our riches and left us at the bottom of a castle system that we had no say in" the general declared loudly as he rasied his arm "if you will not agree now…then I will make you agree!"

At the thrust of his arm, a dozen auto-troops surged forward on her position. The general would bring Mercury to her knees before he outlined his terms again.

* * *

_Author's commentary: This was the first of 2 chapters that I had to go over my 20 page limit, simple because so much had to be covered in the time the space I had left._

_the exposition was intentionally brief because I didn't want to make the reasons central to why there is a battle going on, but explaining a bit of background did help me properly define what my enemy would be like and idenity the general's side with a little more __legitimacy_. 

_Denisa's demise is probably the only scene here where I probably never be quite satisfied with given just how complicated her character was to work out. In the end I just worked with the hammy nature since its just impossible to write her any other way._


	20. Chapter 19: To the last breathe

Chapter 19: To the last breathe

Sailor Mercury already had her legs muscles crouching down for a vertical escape even as the general waved his gesture to attack and by the time the first blade wielding auto-troop was prepared to slash across the target's chest, the tension in her muscles had reached the limit to propel her away from its lethal attack. At the very last moment before the blade was too close to avoid, Mercury instantly catapulted herself skywards, allowing the robot instead to cut the space she had occupied half a second before. Safety and her own chance to survive lay in that one dodge and had Mercury's instincts not mated with her reaction time, she wouldn't have avoided the possibly lethal blow.

But the other auto-troops hadn't been so quick to lunge at the target however and their distance from her vertical escape only made them it easier to focus on their second attempt at halting her. Now that Mercury was in the air, she was the responsibility of the larger gun wielding auto-troops that could shoot her from the sky like poultry. She hadn't quite considered that, but did notice their large cannons starting to aim skywards in time to notice what would happen. Her arcing course wasn't easy to change in midair and all Mercury could do was try dodge as the first dozen rounds started to streak through the night sky.

Initially they missed wide, but steadily the cannons improved in accuracy until Mercury was certain the next one might hit if she didn't do something first. There was only one thing she could do of course and before the auto-troops managed to get a salvo off again, Mercury yelled her first incantation of the night.

"Shabon…Spray!"

The effect was two fold. In an instant, a bluish white cloud of vapor puffed into existence around Mercury and blinded the auto-troops from taking their shot. The other effect was from the incantation 'recoil', it changed Mercury's decent to a whole new direction and helped the young senshi in moving her battle away from the general and towards where she really could fight it. While there wasn't much to be said about Shabon Spray in open spaces – its use at best was confined to indoors – it did have the desired effect and the auto-troops never got a shot off before Mercury finally touched the ground again, atop an air conditioner junction.

The first minute of the battle thus far had been all about dodging blows from the enemy, but from this distance while the enemy was confused for a moment, Mercury went on the offensive finally. Knowing well that the robots would follow her into the maze of air conditioners and roof equipment, Sailor mercury's took the opportunity in her second incantation of the evening to test her aim. It would be important since while the heavy gun wielding robots were traditionally the more concerning to the senshi, in a place like this, the blade wielding ones right now worried Mercury more, if their proven agility a minute ago told her anything.

There were four of them at the moment, backed up by the two gun wielders that had so recently helped try to shoot her out of the sky. In a single group, they leaped towards her, following their target, which had every intention of destroying them before they hit the ground. At the zenith of their arc, just as they had done to her, Mercury took her turn to counter them. Standing firm on the ground, Mercury sighted the four targets she wanted to hit, their glinting blades easily helping her focus on where her attack needed to hit.

"Shine Aqua…"

Like before at the police station or even in this very building a week before, her attack started to swell into action. Over a dozen portals formed, collecting the moisture in the air – of which there was an abundance of right now – to create the solid ice spears that would launch upon the final word being uttered. Mercury couldn't guide them to their target so her aim had to be perfect. Seeing her rapidly descending target now, she calculated and calculated until…

"Illusion!"

At once fourteen half meter icicles launched from their stationary places in the air and flew skywards to their targets and like everything Mercury did in calculation, her solution was dead on. Twelve out of the fourteen projectiles hit, but all four of the menacing blade wielding auto-troops were dispatched in violent impacts. The rounds punctured the torso, severed limbs from torso, severed the head from the torso and variations of the three, but in all four cases only leaving the shredded remains to hit the ground with a thud. The two larger cousins to the four fallen auto-troops made onto the ground without a hitch, but now didn't know what to do. Knowing only where they suspected their target was right now, they started making their way, ignoring obstacles where possible and quickly covering the ground before their enemy could…

"Shabon Spray!"

Out from the left of the two robots, a mist suddenly sprayed out of an air conditioner duct onto them which – while they initially ignored it for half the second that could've saved themselves – soon froze over the joints and eventually jammed the guns on the pair of auto-troops. Confused by the attack, they turned to face where it had come from and unaware of the damage done to their cannons, attempted to fire. The resulting explosion was predictable, in a second a pair of fireballs replaced the disabled auto-troops and blasted the surrounding area into smoldering rubble. By the end of the third minute of the battle, Sailor Mercury had won against all six auto-troops and achieved an all-time record for destroying enemy targets.

The explosion had been predictably loud and among the people had noticed it was Saeko, which after having remained passed out the entire time was stirring from her unconscious state. The explosion had accelerated the process of stirring and in a moment Saeko was fully conscious…first wondering where she was…followed very quickly by a fear of heights that she hadn't experienced since her youth. Finding herself tied about halfway up to a radio tower, Saeko quickly established her bearings when she saw the remains of the fireball wither away into the cold night sky…only to see a spec-sized person standing behind it.

"Ami!" Saeko spoke, feeling for the first time how hoarse her voice was. Below a much louder voice started to speak.

"Very impressive!" the general shouted from where he had watched "truly magnificent!"

Mercury jumped on to the top of an air conditioner so she could stand level with the man she had every reason to defeat. Mercury saw the general, but also saw what could only be bad news standing beside him, at least ten auto troops, with plenty of indications that he had more to spare. Mercury quickly counted at least twenty five, but right now that number seemed to fall when she also remembered there were more somewhere downstairs, waiting to come out the moment the other senshi made their appearance. For only a moment, doubt crept into Mercury's chances in winning this battle.

"Truly you live up to the reputation my subordinates talk about…" the general smirked, "…but it will only be a matter of time before you realize the futility of this"

At the wave of his hand, the second wave of ten auto-troops launched – this time on far lower arcs – into the fray. Mercury quick counted off the incoming wave like before, came up with six blade wielders and four cannon wielders, and set herself up to fire another volley of icicle projectiles. Safety, what there was in it, depended on her ability to eliminate as many auto-troops as fast as possible. It was one important factor in making the best use of her – if it was there at all – trump card, which she could only use once.

"Shine Aqua…"

Mercury was about to launch her volley when a sudden chill to her left spiked and caused her to abandon her attack. Moments before she could've shouted the last word in the incantation, a pair of blade wielding robots jumped over the air conditioner duct and dove down to cut up their target. Mercury's instinct and reaction time again saved her life and she managed to jump clear in time, but like before jumping didn't quite mean safety. As thought they knew it was coming, the still in-flight cannon wielding auto-troops fired – despite the recoil – at a surprised Sailor Mercury, who barely avoided being hit by any of the rounds.

Having barely evaded the surprise in the sky, Sailor Mercury landed on her feet, but found herself genuinely worried for the first time in this battle. She hadn't even detected those two and if Mercury had ignored her instincts for just a second, then this battle would have had a quick conclusion.

"…and how many more robots are hidden in this maze?" Mercury asked herself as she quickly scanner her surroundings.

Unfortunately that question seemed to answer itself as she asked it, when a stray round lanced right past her face and Mercury suddenly found herself in point blank range of now exposed cannon wielding auto-troop. Experience with jumping clear told her not to – where she may as well wear a target given how easy it would be to hit her – and her second response to the situation getting clear won over.

"Shaaaabon…Spray!" Mercury shouted, almost getting the incantation wrong

For the third time, she sprayed the air with a fog that gave her brief chance to escape. It wasn't enough for the auto-troops though who fired salvos anyway. Their rounds missed, only because of her off-axis retreat from the scene. Once clear, Mercury quickly ran – and occasionally hopped over pipes – towards the food court end of the building. With at least thirteen robots, three in close proximity now chasing her, she had no choice but to use the trump card. Two factors came into place when using this; that she find the most opportune moment to wipe out the most enemy with it, and to hold off as long as possible so the other senshi could locate the hiding robots downstairs.

At the present, Mercury felt comfortable with declaring the first factor accomplished and now could only pray that the second factor had been accomplished by now. Mercury didn't like the idea of using it, but couldn't exactly deny she had to use it. The only doubts after deciding there was how it would work, or even how it would be triggered, besides what Mars had told her to do earlier in the day. All that Mercury knew was to run towards the food court and to step on some newspapers to start the trigger. That much she could understand and ran along, hoping that the plan she had created would work this as she hoped.

Halfway to her objective Mercury had to slide under a large air condition unit when two more blade wielders appeared on its, bringing the total number of robots in the area to at least fifteen and preventing her from just hopping over the box. She had enough momentum to keep going though and while under the large box, Mercury for a split second spotted her first good piece of good news. It was small, it was tapped to the underside, but it was first indication that Mercury had hoped to see that the trump card was in use.

"Great…all I need to do is get to the newspapers…but where are they going to be!" Mercury screamed at herself

Just then Mercury found herself in an open space close to the food court dome. Before the ledge that dropped down however was a line of air conditioner pipes and underneath that was a pile of papers that Mercury instantly recognized for what it was. At the same time, a gun wielding auto-troop – jumping up again to look for her – took the chance to shoot down at her, but it landed uselessly meters behind her while just as Mercury dived as though going for the home plate. Despite the vain attempt to hit her, it and fourteen other auto-troops could not have seen what was coming next.

It was hard to tell what happened after the several seconds of waiting for it to happen, the crunching base note of the shockwave or the white flash, just from where Mercury found herself, she was just shy of being caught in the mother of all arranged traps. Located in various parts of the roof assembly was every spare ofuda fire scroll Rei had handy. After landing on the newspapers – or more exactly the sensor that Mars had setup – 167 scolls triggered through a remote incantation, which combined with the machine and the auto-troops themselves, would cause a simply massive explosion. While not quite the most original plan – otherwise Mercury wouldn't have thought of it – or the safest one since it was at a great risk to her life and the mission, it was none the less effective.

The fifteen auto-troops didn't stand a chance, compared to the six that Mercury had defeated swiftly, their destruction seemed almost instantaneous, with only enough time for their own bodies to explode and add to the total effect of the blast.

"What in the…" the general gasped when he saw the fireball and almost couldn't speak, "…fire...sailor…there has to be a…"

Control overtook panic and in a second his conclusion at what had just happened snapped him back into place to make a decision. It couldn't have been a mistake, fire caused that explosion and that meant another sailor senshi was nearby, but where? Didn't he have detectors looking for them on nearby rooftops? All that he knew now was the senshi had forgone one of his demands and that meant all of his previous agreements were off the table. Now he would keep Saeko Mizuno to get other senshi identities and dispose of her in due course, but only after the senshi responsible paid for betraying his deal.

'So Mercury had been lying about the others… well if that's how she wants to play the game then…' the general mused while it picked up his Motorola phone from last night's mission and spoke into it "Colonel, insert your team at once, buy me some time to kill this senshi!"

* * *

Despite the general's hopes that the others wouldn't try to ambush his one-on-one meeting with Mercury, Colonel Soyuz had known better than to expect the other senshi to keep quiet and had already been preparing to teleport even before the order came through. Merely seeing the fireball only confirmed what was inevitable and the order only made Soyuz's preemptive actions justified. Knowing now that the life of one of their own kin wasn't enough to make them think about ambushing, it was now Soyuz's job to make them think twice about intervening. To accomplish that mission, he had a total of twelve light and six heavy auto-troops, at his disposal for the task of exploiting one of the flaws that the senshi had in their mindset.

In the advent that the other senshi attempted to ambush; the general had give Soyuz to job effectively take the rest of the shopping center hostage and create a distraction in which the Senshi would turn their attention to. The inevitable need to rush to the greater concern – something that the previous night had shown was quite easy to arrange – would take away the backup, while the general, having exhausted his mercy, would use the chance to eliminate Sailor Mercury. On paper there seemed to be no problems with this plan and Soyuz had gone the greater step of making arrangements to his force to make the most of his distraction.

Rather than teleporting as one big group as Achen had done on their first battle with the senshi, Soyuz was more careful in planning his deployments. With eighteen instead of twelve, he could afford to deploy small fire teams of auto-troops to cover the entire shopping center – which would force the senshi to split up – while still having enough for a protective force to play them for time. Soyuz was to that end a genius in his tactical plans, but for all the sophistication and guile that his plan breathed of, there was one critical overlooked factor which would doom the colonel's ability to provide the distraction the general wanted.

It came from marrying a plan to a very specific set of circumstances and attempting to predict what the enemy would do. History is replete with examples where a battle was lost entirely because of the inflexibility of the commander's plan, usually as the result of his overconfidence in the enemy conniving at its own destruction. Colonel Soyuz was no expectation and while he had allowed for a number of possible methods the senshi might have used, he hadn't accounted for what he would encounter when his team completed teleporting in.

"Where is everyone?"

Despite the best of plans and arrangements, nothing could defeat a plan better than unexpected circumstances and right now the one thing that Soyuz had not expected to find was the top floor almost complete of people. The reason for the absence was fairly simple side effect of the explosion; the sound and rocking vibrations couldn't have been missed by anyone and the additional loss of electrical power in half the stores gave everyone the right message to run for the exits. When Soyuz finally worked out what was going on, he had already wasted several minutes.

"So now what do I do?"

Had he been thinking less about what he was suppose to do, rather than the circumstances he was in, Soyuz might've decided to recall his two fire teams – having deployed them at the opposite ends of what made the top of the T shape – and made his way to the food court to fight a defensive battle with hostages in the way. But Soyuz knew that his general was depending on him to create as much chaos as possible down here and proceeded with his original plan. Leaving the eight auto-troops Soyuz sent to make a mess where he dropped them, he sent an additional two blade wielders along the top floor to find targets while the colonel took his remaining eight auto-troops with him towards the food court.

Even as he made his decision however, the senshi were already about to make an irreversible change to the course of this battle.

* * *

In contrast to Soyuz's deployment plan, the senshi deployment was almost perfectly suited for the circumstances. After already looking for hidden robots – all of which it turned out weren't even there to begin with – and setting off the explosion that had triggered the intended evacuation of the people, the senshi were now in the right place to focus on the task of eliminating the robots. The only trivial problem that the senshi had encountered however was transforming without anyone looking, but by using bathrooms or empty hallways and a well placed ofuda scroll on the power box that took out all the security camera recorders in advance of the explosion, the problem was overcome.

Despite their failure to find them before the planned explosions that Mars had caused, none shared dismay when the first of their number had teleported in. Like they had practiced only once, all the senshi ignored the failure and checked in with their command and control – presently called the 'bush' for Artemis and Luna were hiding in – to get a fix on who was where and where the enemy was. One thing that came apparent very quickly was the fairly how well placed all the senshi were to react to the threat. While there was no one that awaited Soyuz's team in the food court, five out of the eight senshi were about to face both the auto-troop fire teams he had sent.

On the second floor, just above the part of the mall that Ami had recently visited and Minako with Makoto had just vacated, Haruka and Michiru had just come inside, swapping places with Setsuna who – now looking for somewhere to become Pluto – went downstairs to search the ground floor again. Alerted first by the explosion, and then the word from Artemis about the team of robots heading towards them, the two had found a quiet corridor to become the respective senshi forms and were only returning to the main mall walkway when they encountering their first enemy.

"Head's up, we've got company" Uranus spoke before darting back around the corner the two came from.

Without asking, Neptune swapped places with Uranus, and with her space mirror, used it to see what the were up against.

"I see them…" Neptune replied "…four total, three blades and one cannon"

"Want to wait for Pluto?"

Their original plan when the explosion went off was to wait for Setsuna to transform before confronting their enemy, but her delay in becoming Pluto changed things. Neptune only needed to take a glace at what was in front of the robots to see that wasn't an option. Not everyone had been able to run away fast enough and the second floor had been slower to react than the third floor. Worse was the first floor below which was crowded right now with people trying to rush down the escalators and out onto the street. In Panic had arisen and the slow rush made dozens of people sitting targets. To the smaller blade wielding robots, which both remembered were fairly lethal in their designed function.

"No, we can't wait…we'll take them now…"

"Take out the gun first?"

"Blades first" Neptune replied "they're too close to risk waiting"

Uranus nodded, flexing her hand holding the sword. Personally she would've gone after the cannon wielding one first, but the distance the robots were from the people didn't leave room them enough choice. Uranus raised the sword then, already deciding what to use before speaking.

"Alight…2…1…"

At the third beat in her count, both senshi jumped out from the corner and sighted aim on their targets. Neptune, being the closest the corner jumped out the furthest before dropping to one knee and aimed her mirror at a target.

"Submarine Reflection!"

The aquatic beam fired from the portal that replaced the mirror surface, and as accurate as always, landed on the intended target. Unable to aim at the head, which had been obscured by the robot's blades, Neptune instead stuck the exposed right leg joint and removed the limb from the robot. The robot was surprised to find its leg mission, to which proceeded to first hopped and hobble, before finally loosing balance and crashing to the floor. While it fell, Uranus took her turn to attack a robot.

"Space Sword…Blaster!"

Uranus was successful in getting her incantation off, but wasn't quite as lucky with her target. A security camera pole had absorbed one hit, but the other three of her four slashes still disabled her target's ability to hurt people by dismembering its arms and head from the torso. After realizing that its sensors and offensive capability was gone, it simply fell limp to the fall before the internal engine caught fire just like in the first one Neptune had destroyed.

"Time to hide" Uranus said as she and Neptune ducked behind a shrubbery box.

With two of their fellow auto-troops down, the two remaining turned their attention to the persons responsible instead of the people below. Unfortunately for the two outer senshi, the distance between them and the robots meant they had seen where they had ducked behind and started aim on their new target. The larger auto-troop fired its cannon into the shrubbery box the two had jumped behind and managed a clean hit of the side he had seen them jump behind.

"Close…" Neptune breathed, feeling how close she had been from losing one of her slender legs to the cannon shot.

"Think you can hit the cannon wielder?" Uranus asked "you have the ranged weapon"

"Hold on…" Neptune rolled over and again used her mirror to see where the duo where. She spotted the cannon wielder at once, but the third blade wielder was missing and she didn't know…

"Neptune! Look out!" shouted a voice

Neptune reacted, though not knowing where the danger was, didn't move fast enough to avoid what danger was about to hit her. Uranus did notice where it was however and brought up her sword in time to rebound the descending blades that had come within inches of dismembering both of them. Uranus could barely hold her grip against the much heavier and psychically more powerful auto-troop but was quickly losing, But before she gave in and lost against the robot, a purple energy beam from a discreet corner lanced out and struck the auto-troop in the back, destroying what mortality the mechanical beast had.

Neptune was unceremoniously nailed to the floor on her back by the weight of partner's dive to save her, and then pinned when the robot's mass dropped like a stone onto Uranus and her underneath. Incapacitated in moving except at the head and her left arm, Neptune could however move her arm and with a motion, she turned over to sight the confused remaining auto-troop.

"Sub…marine…Reflection!" Neptune whispered.

The shot barely hit the target, but it proved a distraction long enough for Pluto to fire her more accurate second shot at the cannon wielding robot. In a minute, the robot was destroyed and starting to catch fire like its fallen brethren.

"I thought you were going to wait for me?" Pluto spoke as she walked over "you two alright?"

With a little assistance from Pluto, Uranus finally pulled the robot off her and thus freed Neptune from the collective weight pinning her down.

"You alright Neptune?" Pluto asked while pulling her friend up from the floor. She took a moment to get her feet working, but she miraculously hadn't broken anything.

"Just dandy…only had half a ton dropped on me"

"Hey! The half ton was him, not me!" Uranus spoke offhandedly.

The trio had a collective chuckle, even if the joke was bad since for now at least, there was time for levity. That levity which was cut short when they heard a subtle explosion coming from the opposite end of the mall, they didn't need to know it was Sailor moon's group were encountering the other fire team of auto-troops.

"We better go help them" Pluto replied serious "there weren't any robots on the ground floor, they are all in here"

"Right" Neptune and Uranus.

The Trio, having cleared their corner of the building started to race off, not aware of how close the explosion had been.

* * *

On the roof meanwhile, Mercury was holding out against her enemy, but even she had to admit to herself it wasn't enough. The general had dispatched another fifteen auto-troops to battle her – just to show that the losses were seemingly insignificant – and his twin blade-wielding colonels had just joined the fight. She was hopelessly outclassed in that respect and all she could do was dodge, evade and occasionally damage or destroy an auto-troop with a stray attack. Thus far the only ally she had in this battle was the cluttered roof she had to hide in; despite the fact she had just blown a quarter of it away.

The smoke from the continuing fire helped mask her hiding place, which protected her from the colonels, but it didn't mean anything to the robots which could see through that anyway. Worse was she was running out ways of evading them, the increasing amount of damage to the existing structures was making her choices increasingly limited. Without the haze of the smoke, Mercury sometimes used her Shabon spray attack to hide herself long enough to summon an attack, but it only now served as a beacon for the other robots and the colonels trying to finish her.

The same conclusions were the least of what Saeko could discern from her spot high above the battlefield. Not able to cheer for her daughter – though the temptation was there – she remained quiet and focused witnessing her Ami doing her best to avoid the enemy. For the first and perhaps only time ever, she saw what her daughter was capable of, not through retellings from others or her own imaginative battles Saeko had recently dreamed of, but the real thing. This was her Ami, as Sailor Mercury, who was right now battling alone up against seventeen enemy combatants and even Saeko could tell she was fighting an increasingly hopeless situation.

Saeko had long since stopped asking herself where the others were, having figured it by now why her daughter was alone. It had to have been a demand of her captives that the other senshi could be here, though judging from the explosion she was awoken by, it seemed in some way that the others might have been helping in another way. But for the moment, Mercury was all alone, and losing. But despite being heavily outnumbered and increasingly outmatched, from her perch – tied to the radio tower, Ami's gallantry in a worsening situation felt more impressive than Saeko denied herself to believe.

"Ami…" her hoarse voice cheered "hang in there…"

* * *

"Sailor Venus, where are you?" Artemis screamed into the communicator

"We're almost there, hang tight!"

"Oh I'm hanging alright…just get over here!"

Sailor Venus and Jupiter had just made it to the third floor to scout ahead when a radio call came from Luna and Artemis that a pair of blade wielding robots had just sliced up their shrubbery box and were chasing after them. Brave cats as they sometimes where, understandable cowardice was expected when facing two six foot auto-troops and the cats right were now running for their lives, dodging blows along the way. Artemis and Luna weren't in any real danger however, for as long as the continued their dance and ran towards where the two senshi were coming from.

The distance was quickly covered in a minute and contact with the first of the two auto-troops came soon after Artemis's radio communication. Through the now empty third floor of the mall, she could see both of the robots stomping the ground and occasionally stabbing it with their blades.

"Let's go!" Venus said while running and flexed her fingers oh her right hand into the shape of a gun.

"Right!" Jupiter replied

They waited to get a little closer before taking a sure shot on the one currently after Luna, at the exact moment decided by Venus, the two shouted their incantations at once.

"Crescent Beam!"

"Sparkling Wide Pressure!"

Despite being a touch slower at getting her incantation out, Lighting would always beat plasma in speed and thus long before the golden surge of energy could blast a hole into the armor platted torso, the bolt of lighting from had electrocuted the exposed back of the auto-troop and disabled it before it could fully turn around. When the bolt of Venus's laser shot hit, it merely finished the job that Jupiter's lighting bolt started. At once the robot – now dead from being shot in the back twice – doubled over and crashed the ground, narrowly avoiding a just as surprised Luna.

Its partner noticed the fall of its comrade and stopped trying to kill the white cat to see who had done it. Venus and Jupiter were already arming a second shot to finish it off but the this time the Auto-troop managed to see it coming and deflected the rounds, though taking a minor surge from the electrical attack, it survived.

"Any ideas?" Jupiter asked at once, already looking for a place to run to. Despite the distance, neither senshi was prepared to risk an incanting a second attack with a blade-wielding auto-troop so close, which they had to attack from the side anyway.

"I have one" Venus announced and started to run to the left.

Jupiter having no idea what to say merely followed the leader for the moment and in doing so do did surviving auto-troop, having no idea why they had run towards the colonel, merely followed its targets like it was programmed to do. Venus hadn't really had an idea, but when she saw what store she was about to run by, a – admittedly crazy – idea formed.

"Follow me and listen" Venus said as she and Jupiter entered the now empty toy story.

Their speed over the auto-troop was impressive, enough so that it took almost a minute for it to catch up, crash through the glass automatic doors and start searching for the two targets that had electively cornered themselves. It didn't take long, after looking down the length of two aisles; the auto-troop had almost missed seeing Venus hiding in the third aisle until she hit with something.

"Venus Love-me gun!" Venus proclaimed while pulling the trigger.

The weapon, fired like promised, but instead of the for-real attack it was so advertised to shoot, it fired foam Nerf Darts – complete with a heart shaped tip – at the auto-troop. With nerves of steel, Venus gradually emptied the magazine, hitting the blade wielding robot again and again as it surged towards the vulnerable senshi with the toy gun. It had only a meter to go before it could attack Venus, but from behind it suddenly detected its back taking a powerful electrical surge which soon shorted out the sensors altogether, leaving this auto-troop to crash to the floor just shy of its intended target. When Venus was certain he was down, she fired a real crescent beam through the back of the head.

"You alright?" Jupiter asked from end of the aisle the robot had come from.

She had managed to kill her second auto-troop for this evening, but even she was in awe of the nerve Venus had just showed, in a second she was surprised at her reply.

"Jupiter, I have got to get me one of these things!" Venus proclaimed while she attempted to spin the plastic toy in her head, she was unsuccessful in doing it like they did in the movies, but in succeeded in leaving Jupiter in awe of her courage for the moment.

"Come on…" Jupiter decided to ignore the moment Venus was having "we need to see if our guardians are alright"

"Right" Venus changed tone at once as she placed the gun on the shelf and returned to the serious guile that she was suppose to have for times like this.

In a moment the two exited the toy shop and made their way back to where they had left Artemis and Luna.

* * *

"It's useless Mercury…just give up…I will even consider sparing your life again" the general taunted.

'Not…On…Your…Life" Mercury thought quietly as she nursed the gash to her right arm.

One of the colonels had finally scored a hit her before taking a face full of foam followed by Mercury's second use of 'Mercury Aqua Rhapsody' tonight. She had held out as long as she could before resorting to her stronger attacks, but now it was becoming desperate to stay in the fight. The other senshi were suppose to have intervened by now and she had still hadn't seen anyone yet. Mercury had long since used the one trump card that had brought along, was now being forced to show her hand in her stronger attacks an more importantly, was starting to doubt long she could last.

'I can't do it! I have to fight!'

Either from her own wishes to or from mere chance however, a damaged, but still deadly auto-troop jumped over a wall of air conditioner pipes and gave fulfilled Mercury's desire to continue fighting.

* * *

The second fire team met its demise not long after the first was destroyed. After the first one was destroyed by Sailor moon's tiara attack, the surviving three gained a sudden interest in only attacking her. What resulted was it had left Mars and Saturn free to take advantage of the impromptu change in their enemy's tactics and in one move, eliminate the three auto-troops in a manner as spectacular as the battle that taken place in this very part of the mall a week ago. The timing couldn't have been better, with the second fire-team's quick demise; it released the trio of senshi to meet up with the other five, as so to deal with the final group of auto-troops and their leader with all the force they could muster.

Compared to the situation on the roof, the situation was far better than expected, though nobody dared to say it in fear of jinxing their luck. In addition to the two stray robots that had threatened the lives of their cat guardians, the score card at this point stood at ten auto-troops dead for zero senshi casualties, and now there were going after final threat inside the building. They all knew about where it was by now and – thanks to a count their guardian cats got earlier – even what was there waiting for them, for which they could quickly summarize a plan to set in motion to deal with it. It was a fairly risky plan and it would take time to properly set up, but if it went all according to plan, they would be able to eliminate the final threat in the building rather quickly.

Meanwhile, barricaded in an apparently empty food court – save for employees and patrons hiding in their stores – was Colonel Soyuz, lamenting at how this battle had become his final stand. He had gambled greatly with his force deployments, but the gamble had fallen through and now he didn't even have the firepower to deal with all the senshi at once. With less than half of his remaining force intact, Soyuz could tell he was near the end, but unlike Achen, he wouldn't go down without a fight. Since Soyuz had no hostages to prevent the Senshi from attacking his force, he had to compromise by making his final stand a long defensive battle.

With that in mind, he had sighted his remaining forces around a defensive stand in the one direction that the senshi would have to approach from. From here, the mall's tier of balconies looking down at the food court were like a shooting gallery to his four heavy auto-troops while his four light auto-troops could easily defend anything approaching from the ground floor. It wasn't the best arrangement, and Soyuz had already pondered about calling the general for back up, but it would hopefully fulfill the Colonel's job of distracting the senshi long enough for the general to finish his job. His eight were pretty well sighted for his hopefully long battle, but unfortunately the Colonel wouldn't get this.

On the second floor, all eight senshi were in position, four lay on their stomachs waiting to crawl the final meter to the ledge while the other four were several meters behind, crouched down, but ready to jump over the ledge and intro the fray.

"Everyone ready" Artemis spoke before hearing a brief few seconds of whispered confirmation signals, when he counted off eight he then continued "Okay…in 3…2….1…"

Just as Soyuz was about to reconsider calling for backup, they started their attack. From the second floor balcony, Sailor Moon, Pluto, Uranus and Saturn had all leap over the glass barricade, jumping down to land on the ground floor before starting to draw the attention of his four light auto-troops and his four well camouflaged – he really wanted to protect his cannons – heavy auto-troops. Like they were suppose to do, they acted on their programming and started shooting at the targets that had just shown themselves in broad daylight, but it had been a mistake. The camouflage that kept them hidden had been negated from the blast effect from the cannons and the flame from the firing barrel was just enough information for the four other senshi, about to volley off incantations now being spoken.

"Crescent Beam!"

"Burning Mandela!"

"Sparkling Wide Pressure!"

"Submarine Reflection!"

From what looked like the bottom of the second floor, a white electric bolt and what looked like a Red, Gold and Aqua beam shot from the ledge and struck the head of their respective targets, it hadn't even taken more than five seconds before all four of his heavy auto-troops were effectively disabled. What followed was mere aftermath, after one brilliant stroke of tactical planning, the blade wielding robots – only two of which successfully engaged the senshi – were crippled with blows from the weapon wielders among their team before being dispatched in short order from secondary shots from the other four senshi, still laying down on the floor of the second level like snipers.

What took almost ten minutes to set up was achieved in just over ninety seconds and in a little over two minutes, the last auto-troop was destroyed – with very little in the way of resistance – as was Soyuz's own ambitions to drag this battle out for time. The shock effect alone delayed the comprehension that could've been able to call in backup, but by the time he had recovered from the battlefield confusion, it was already far too late and his mind turned to planning for his final attack.

"You there!" Sailor Uranus shouted to Soyuz "Stand to and prepare to surrender!"

Soyuz stood up from his hiding place and placed his hands in the air in the universal sign of surrender. When they were sure he didn't have a weapon in his hand. The senshi at once spread out to surround him from a distance, but weren't really alarmed by how easily the man had surrendered. They weren't quite sure under the circumstances what to do with him but once he was properly surrounded, Sailor moon started walking forward, scepter in hand, walking with Pluto who had her own staff ready to take custody of their prisoner.

"Your name?" Sailor moon asked

"Soyuz, a Colonel of the Dark Kingdom…" he replied before changing his tone "…and the person who is going to kill you!"

While the senshi weren't quite sure what to do with the person they had just captured, the colonel was quite clear on what he had to do. He could do one only thing, it would be too late to do anything else, but given the opportunity presented before him and the senshi's failure to check for weapons on his body, he had one chance to do this. In one swift action, Soyuz leapt towards the future queen while he pulled his suicide dagger out from its hostler on the back of his belt. Achen had used his on himself to prevent being captured, but if Soyuz were to die, he preferred if could take the future queen of the moon kingdom with him.

"Fatal…"

Pluto flinched upon seeing the dagger out and quickly brought her staff to block the dagger from hitting Sailor moon.

"Garnet…"

"…Dagger!" he breathed his final word.

"…Ball!" Pluto shouted a split second later.

By a narrow margin of one third of a second, Pluto's energy shield formed just in time to save both of their lives, while the full force of the explosion was projected back at the Colonel. However fortunate those two were though, the other six weren't so lucky. Though distant from the colonel at the time he turned his weapon on Sailor moon, they weren't far away enough to avoid being knocked over from the blast, which was at least a consolation to being hit with flying debris instead or being caught in the fireball itself. Like all explosions, once the instantaneous peak of the blast had passed, it quickly disappeared as it appeared and soon thereafter was replaced with smoke that fogged the food court now.

"Everyone alive?" Pluto shouted out to the others.

Her replies came in the form of five affirmatives and one string of curses.

"You alright Uranus?" Sailor moon asked

"Yeah…I'm alright…that crazy son of a…" Uranus mumbled before coughing up smoke that was filling the air.

In another few minutes, all the senshi were on their feet and inspecting the damage they had wrought. In the center of where the general had seen a ring of blackened ask which explained like the rays of the sun in all directions save for the one that Pluto's shield had protected. Tables and chairs already pushed out of the way during the course of the evening had not so much been damaged as been torn to unrecognizable pieces. It was the signature aftermath of a failed attempt to kill their leader. All the senshi paused at the lapse in judgment before Venus spoke up for the group.

"Is this the last of them?"

"Yes…" Pluto said

The elation of defeating the force inside was quickly subdued by the realization of what was to come. With the completion of their primary mission for this evening, now they could finally move onto their secondary mission.

"Then let's go…" Sailor moon spoke for the team "…its time to help our friend"

* * *

At about the same time the other senshi had commenced their attack on Soyuz, Mercury was starting to come apart from the strenuous and continuous combat. For over thirty minutes, she had fought a desperate battle against the general's legions of robots and his bodyguards, playing for time just as the distraction team the general had sent was playing the other senshi for time. Using every trick in the book, evading almost every hit and essentially letting the enemy chase after her, it was impossible for her to last forever and in addition to the wounds on her leg and arm – two lucky hits – fatigue was setting in, always a bad sign of how hopeless the situation was.

Over the course of the entire battle, Mercury's constant attacks with Shabron spray had covered the once boxy maze of the air conditioner pipes and assorted machinery with enough frozen water to turn most of the surfaces into an ice skating rink. It made things slightly harder to move around, though it did offer the ability for Mercury to incant spells while still skating along a flat surface. She had managed to destroy three and damage two more of the general's robots this way, but there was absolutely nothing she could do about the bodyguards as Mercury had come to dub them.

One of them, which she had dubbed 'blue' – for the color rope sash that hung off her sword's hilt – was right behind Mercury again in pursuit, and looking for another attempt to land another strike. Her and her sister 'red' had already scored once each, but blue at the moment was the closest to get a second strike right now and was determined to make it the body disabling blow. But Mercury wouldn't let her have it so easily and for the last three minutes had successfully blocked two attempts, however she had been unable to distance herself enough.

Her bad leg contributed greatly to that and the subsequent lost the ability to jump reliably hurt Mercury's chances of escaping from her grasp. In addition to the leg, Mercury was just too exhausted, too badly injured, and expended all a year's worth of luck just getting this far. The colonel knew all that and only needed Mercury to make a single mistake – which had contributed to their two successful strikes against her – and it would be all over.

'Okay…I think its time for another attempt at attacking' Mercury told herself when she came up to a relatively – at least from the outward appearance – flat piece of ground to turn around, skate backwards and blast her opponent off the ice. She had used this tactic successfully a dozen times already, but like all things she had done tonight, she just had done things a little too well and was due to make a mistake. At the right moment, Mercury surprised her pursuer when she turned around and started to summon what energy she had for one more attack.

"Shine…aqua…"

As much as Mercury had wanted to finish the attack incantation, this time fate from a previous encounter with an auto-troop in this very part of the roof would come back to doom her. Laying on the ground disused and covered in ice was the severed limb of one of the smaller blade wielding auto-troops she had destroyed in the opening act of her battle with the general. Layers of ice had covered it and provided a subtle bump on the flat surface, it wouldn't have been enough if Mercury was skating facing forwards, but in reverse, it was very hard to maintain balance, let alone avoid it.

Upon hitting the bump, Mercury yelped and fell backwards onto her back, sliding for a few meters until coming to a complete stop. The Momentum from her skating and the lower had ensured that she would continue to slide further than on dry ground, but it was merely a trivial footnote at finally making a fatal mistake. Colonel Lin had hoped for this sort of mistake and praised when it did. She came to a stop herself and treaded the final meter of ice ground to where Mercury had come to a stop. Before Lin could bring up her sword and drive its blade through her target's neck, her twin sister had arrived.

"Stop" Rin ordered

Lin did so, but kept her sword an inch from Mercury's face. Rin approached the downed senshi and simply

"Any last requests?"

It was too much to think while fatigued, but Mercury would stick to her convictions.

'Sorry mother…' Mercury winced before she replied simply "…go…to…hell"

Rin and Lin simply shrugged and brought their swords up together. At a silent count of three, the two of them drove their swords down, aiming for the neck that intended to gut open and in doing so; among other things, sever the brain from the body, for a noisy and bloody death. They had come with in a few inches of accomplishing their task when two bars of steel blocked Mercury's exposed neck. Both Colonel's surprised at the sudden appearance of pole arms looked up in bewilderment to find the culprits, only to discover each twin's face was inches away from the soul end of a pair of boots about to smash their into them.

Half a second later, the boots connected with their respective targets and started to propel the two Colonel's away from Mercury and into a wall several meters away after which Sailors Saturn and Pluto had already landed and skidded to a halt, weapons out and ready to finish off the twin Colonels who were unable to speak of their surprise.

"Pluto! Saturn!" Mercury gasped before she pulled herself to sit upright.

"Sorry we're late" Pluto remarked, before adding "We'll handle these two from here"

As Pluto spoke, the two colonels regained the footing slowly and wielded their swords again. While they were indeed surprised at the sudden arrival of Pluto and Saturn, they were not easily intimidated at all by the weapons held in the two senshi's hands. For as long as their weapons were still in their own hands – thanks to the ropes slung around their hands – they weren't afraid of anything. Standing up and facing off the equally serious duo that had belayed their execution of Sailor Mercury, the two pairs stared each other down for a minute before at an imaginary countdown timer reached zero.

Trained to react in unison, the twins catapulted the same moment towards their counterpart senshi who also reacted in unison enough to block the first, then second and finally third strike before they went on the offensive. The two senshi's slashes were not quite as identical as the twins – owing to their different weapons and different minds – but they none the less worked well as a team just as effectively as the twin dark kingdom colonels. After seeing the effectiveness of the two senshi for the first time, both colonels forgot all about Mercury and focused now on their new goal of defeating these two.

At once, both twins promptly jumped high and over their targets to try from a new angle.

It was a useless gamble however and in a few second they found themselves again being rammed when both senshi jumped right into the twins, bumping into them and pushing afield. Having succeeding first in preventing the demise of Mercury, the duo of senshi had now further succeeded in their part of the greater plan now being executed.

* * *

"What the hell…" the general shout in surprise when he saw his two colonels kicked backwards. He had only seen the senshi a few seconds earlier himself and hadn't had the time to shout his warning. When he regained his compose from the second surprise of this evening, he simply bellowed the order "Attack them!"

Circumstances and confusion, the things that had doomed Soyuz's mission, now would doom the general's mission. At once the auto-troops in field responded to their leaders cry and headed into the direction he was pointing to, but it had been a lethal mistake. Had he been thinking about what had just happened, he might have come to the possible conclusion that there were other senshi hiding somewhere else. Instead, it took the destruction trio of blade wielding auto-troops from a trio of Beam shots to alert the general to the present of the other senshi in the field. The general, further confused at what he just saw, turned to face the direction where the beams had originated and was in time to see three senshi jumping skywards, advancing into the private battle he had almost won against Mercury.

His sudden loss of control of the battle couldn't have come at a worse time and now the general was now reacting to the situation instead of getting a hold on what was going on. In his confusion lay time wasted making choices and by the time had made it, it was already too late. Before the general could take control and order his remaining auto-troops to face them off, another barrage of attacks stuck close to where he stood, knocking out two of his cannon wielding auto-troops and suddenly opening a second – or third? – front in this ambush on him. Turning around again, confused now at the rapidly developing situation, he spotted three more senshi standing on the roof of the lift well

His response, not confused this time was pure reaction.

"All of you! Focus on them!" His order came out in a rasp as he himself pulled his sword out to lead the remaining reserve force to fight the closest threat first.

However unrated he was as a fighter, he knew there was no choice but to get involved, even if the situation wasn't entirely ideal for repelling the threat. The general only had a squad of only about eight auto-troops and an additional eight elsewhere on the roof – presently racing to back him up – to face of the surprise attack from the senshi that just so recently appeared. It was a tremendous reversal of the circumstances of only five minutes ago; compared to a one sided battle between one senshi, the sudden rearrangement of the ratio of senshi to auto-troop had suddenly counterbalanced into a far more balanced fight in favor of the senshi, and with his remaining two colonels currently distracted…

"Looks like the party is about to start…" Jupiter spoke as she peered around the corner she had dived behind. She had finally started adopting the candid tone that Venus had used in the toy store before.

Sailor moon and Uranus merely nodded before they saw Neptune and Mars arrive, their signal to leap into battle and let loose the first of their attacks.

* * *

"You alright?" Venus asked, as she helped the battered and bruised Mercury to her feet.

"Yeah…just…" Mercury spoke before she stumbled again and was caught by Venus. The fellow senshi only needed one look at her friend's leg to see what was wrong.

"Don't about it…let us handle the heavy work…" Venus replied "When Saturn gets rid of those two lackeys…"

Mercury however wouldn't hear of it, even after feeling some solace in hearing that, she still resisted the temptation to do take Venus's advice and do nothing amidst the chaos now going on.

"I need to save my mother…she is…" Mercury spoke, but feeling weak from the blood loss, instead pointed to the radio tower.

Venus attempted to see what she was pointing at before being distracted by Mercury slumping over, which prompted Venus to get under her friend's arm to hold her up. When that was done, she looked up again to see where Mercury had been pointing at. While her eyes weren't excellent for looking at night, it was also quite hard to miss the person tied to it. Without further discussion, Venus helped Mercury along.

* * *

Far from the enveloping chaos of the battle the general was fighting, the twin sword wielding colonels and the two pole-arm proficient Sailor senshi were continuing their duel at an erratic pace, thought however frantic it may have appeared, the dual had staggered to a standstill between the two senshi and the twins. Both sides had demonstrated themselves as equals in psychical abilities and in skill at their respective weapons, and neither side really had the advantage anywhere else. They were almost equally fatigued from a night of combat, and the terrain chosen for this battle gave both sides an equal level of complexity to consider in their constant offensive and defensive moves.

This part of the roof had been less affected by the battle before and subsequently there were more intact obstacles and heights that gave each side something to work with or curse about, depending on the situation, which constantly changed minute by minute. It also meant that the twin duos had been forced to split up, in order to give their respective partner more room to work with. As a result of this complication, Saturn was facing off with Rin or 'red' while Pluto was tasked with facing off with Lin or 'blue' in two individual fights that quickly distanced themselves as the terrain would eventually force them to do.

It was a disadvantage for both sides to loose mutual support of course, but it was more so to the two senshi. They needed close proximity in order to come up with a plan to quickly defeat their opponents and aid in the ongoing battle, unlike the twin counterparts, who didn't share the same concerns. This was the only factor between the two sides that one had and the other didn't, and since becoming aware of it, the two colonels played it to their advantage. Dragging out the battle and playing for time, knowing that despite their own need to aid the general, they just as easily could deny the two senshi the same need to aid their counterparts.

The general combination of all these factors resulted in a fairly stationary situation, despite the erratic pace that seemed to indicate otherwise, but it couldn't last forever. Both sides knew that and through the seemingly static progress, there were signs of this battle slowly shifting towards the senshi's advantage, thought it wasn't being won because of superiority on the part of the senshi, rather their own blend of fatigue being just a little less virulent than the twin's fatigue. They had just spent a little too much energy chasing after Mercury, compared to the relatively easier task that Pluto and Saturn had since accomplished.

This didn't necessarily give Sailor Pluto or Saturn the advantage however, and fatigue was the only concern to Sailor Pluto had in her head at the moment, who was – even as she countered her opponent's attacks – trying to find a fairly effective way to convey the idea that she had just come up with to Saturn. It had taken a comprehensive five minutes to work up the idea, but in the time she had examine enough their opponent's moves, Pluto had worked a fairly effective, if somewhat brutal, way to eliminate their two opponents at the same time.

Eventually luck and a little coordination on her par, Pluto collided with her back up against Saturn, who was now close enough again to convey the idea as fast as she could.

"Listen quickly…I want you to…"

Her time to explain what she wanted Saturn to do wasn't long, but it was just enough. After a brief moment of respite – which the two colonels had used to catch their breath as well – that didn't last longer than thirty seconds, their opponents jumped towards them. It forced both senshi to jump clear and resume their fight again, but right now it was purely a setup for what Pluto had planned. After separating again to either side of the line of glass skylights, Saturn and Pluto successful fought their opponents towards fighting stance that in a way would, from a distance, put the twins back to back like the senshi were just before.

What followed was pure panache in combat. At the same time, Pluto and Saturn charged at their respective opponents, first knocking them not only off their feet before jumping up and propelling themselves and their opponent towards the other. The twin colonels reacted at once like they had the other three times they had been bumped into and raised their swords – unaware that their sibling was behind each other – for an impending slash once the senshi fell back as they always did. This time however they didn't, to their collective, fatal, misfortune.

"Garnet Ball!"

"Silent wall!"

At a second before the tips of their swords penetrated the upper back of their respective twin, the two senshi's powerful shields flared, with very intention of colliding towards each other. At exactly a second afterwards, both twins simultaneously felt the piercing feeling of cold steel stabbing into their back and rupturing out of their chest a moment later. The blade tip didn't get much further however as the shields were too strong for the steel to penetrate further, but they had done their job. If the semi-self-inflicted fatal wound didn't do the trick however, the pressure from the two shields crushing their torsos tightly together did.

It was enough to compromise every internal organ in each twin's body and start any of a dozen lethal complications that ranged from painless or agonizing. At ten seconds after the first sword penetrated the body however, all feeling left their respective bodies as the nervous system became severed in any number of places and the spines crunched into dozens of pieces. Death, what was of it came soon after that and both twins were already mortally dispatched when the two senshi bounced backwards, leaving the bodies to crash first through the glass skylight and then down the center three story void in the mall below.

It wasn't the first time Saturn or Pluto had killed – at least in this lifetime – so coldly, though both senshi did feel remorse at what they had just done. Unlike robots or monsters, mortally wounding people were something that neither senshi liked to consider when they were forced to use lethal force. But when push came to shove, like all warriors of any discipline would attest, in the end it was better than being the other guy. It was a truism in life, thought it wouldn't save them the guilt that always came from slaying an enemy with a face and a name.

The knew the faces, but not the name, which helped a bit in making the two forget about what they had just done and turn to the battle still raging on at the miniature golf course.

* * *

The general hadn't seen the demise of his two colonels, but they had been the least of his worries, though he now badly needed them to come and back him up. Of the sixteen auto-troops he had left at the start of his fight, he was down to ten and while he had managed to retain enough control over the battle to bring it a stand still, he was clearly aware of how little time he had left before they would over run him. He was all alone now, his entire team was mortally dispatched and only ten, of the more than fifty auto-troops he had brought with him, were left working. It was the kind of circumstances he had dreaded ever since beginning his own mini-war with the senshi less than two weeks ago.

But if there was one thing going for the general, however minor, it was the fact that of his ten remaining auto-troops, seven were of the heavier cannon-wielding variety. They were far more useful to him right now than the three smaller blade-wielding type for the simple reason that it managed to keep the senshi at a distance. In this most absurd of battlefields, there wasn't enough cover for the senshi to take cover behind and this gave his guns free reign of the battlefield. The miniature golf course by this point was a mess with burning robots and this most artificial of landscapes covered in debris from all manner of exchanged shots. What cover did remain however was occupied by the five senshi.

"Well, got any new ideas?" Uranus yelled into her communicator

"I got nothing" Mars lamely replied "I'm pinned near the number 15 tee…"

The battle was actually turning out to be a lot harder than any of them had expected, for one they had never, not once encounter this many guns and while they had dispatched two in short gains, it wasn't really remarkable progress. The one thing left in the general's pocket was his ability to keep the senshi far enough from, and too busy to, take out his cannon wielders and it was doing remarkable well, so well that the robots were now just continuously firing rounds at hopes of connecting a stray round with a senshi.

"I have one"

All the ears perked up, not from the news of a plan, but from the voice that spoke it.

"Mercury!"

"Sorry for being late…" Mercury gasped over her own communicator "Neptune…how quickly can you make your back to where the number seven hole is…"

When the general saw how effective his suppressing fire had become, he was almost elated at the news that he had halted the senshi's advance. His prerogative right then turned to starting to reverse his situation, using his three blade wielders to ambush the senshi in their suspected hiding spots, he would start to force them into a retreat, and maybe…just maybe catch one or two of them along the way. But before his own plan went into action, Sailor Mercury's started first. From the left behind a mound that he had suspected a senshi to be hiding, Neptune darted away from it and proceeded to run backwards towards yet another mound.

The general no doubt took the initiative to react to this move and dispatched his blade wielding auto-troops to fire on the retreating senshi. He had almost successful in accomplishing this when the final surprise for evening came. Without warning, two beams of light crashed to the ground around his auto-troops and caused many of the rounds to fly far off their target or into the air. When the general and his auto-troops turned to face the culprits – Venus, Saturn and Pluto – who had started this chaos, Neptune and Mercury armed their next incantations to drown the robot force.

"Deep submerge!"

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

Alone, each attack was fairly impressive, but combined into one attack, it made for an incredible force of aquatic power. It came at a considerable strain on both senshi – especially Mercury – however, but the resulting wave of water blown towards the remaining auto-troops was more than enough to compensate for the pain brought in summoning their attack. The four senshi in the path of the attack braced, to either jump clear or hold their breath as it hurdled over their positions and proceeded to knock over the general's remaining force.

The general saw it too, but was too late to do anything. In looking for the distractions in the sky, most of his cannon wielding auto-troops had exposed their backs and doomed the most sensitive part of the systems to the wave of water now crashing down on them. In the moments that followed, an electrical firestorm briefly erupted when five of the seven cannon wielding auto-troops had succumbed the wave and shorted out in explosive discharges. Only two had been a little luckier and were only partially damaged by the wave, along with the blade wielding auto-troops which were more fortunate still.

But the general effect of the wave had doomed the entire force to numbers that the senshi could defeat. At once, they simultaneously emerged from their hiding places, closed in to take advantage of the confusion and began to dispatch the auto-troops the general had left in his command. Sailor Mars, Jupiter and Uranus lead the charge as went to engage them in close quarter combat, landing strikes to the body. Jupiter and Mars had taken the first down, after a spectacularly powerful – and slightly painful – lower roundhouse kick; it had been unbalanced and fell forward for Mars to shoot an incantation into the back of the torso.

Uranus had done one better, taking on an already slightly damaged auto-troop all by herself. After several successful dodges, Uranus finally landed a blow, using her space sword to stab first the sensor head, and then the back of the robot. Upon being disabled, it fell to the ground and left Uranus crouching atop her fourth kill for the evening. Right behind her however, an auto-troop that had been the closest to making her its first but it didn't make it. The auto-troop had attempted to slash the senshi who had destroyed its brother, but had been stopped when its sensor system had gone blank followed but its engine being damaged. Without out both of these things, it simply died and fell to the ground.

"Nice Save Saturn" Venus praised the young senshi.

Having all leapt high in order to provide a single round aerial bombardment for Mercury's plan, Saturn, Venus and Pluto where last to add their force to the fight. All landed on the firm ground safely, except Saturn who had taken the extra step to destroy the auto-troop that had come so close to injuring her persudo-father. The two remaining auto-troops of the once fifty strong force might as well have been destroyed the five others knocked out in the wave. Their guns needed time to warm up after being cooled down and by the time they got off a shot to cover for the now dead fellow auto-troops, it was too late.

They started to back themselves up along with their general who was only now starting to recover from the shock of the surprise attack. After asking himself what had happened a dozen times, his eyes finally managed to notice the one person who he had come so close to killing only a quarter of an hour earlier.

'Mercury…' the general griped '…so you and your friends did all of this to save your mother…you had it all planned out too…'

The senshi were closing in all around him now, though from their experience with Soyuz, taught them to not get too close, the general was none the less intimidated. At least until he realized what him and his auto-troops were backing into. Behind them was the radio-tower, and tied to it was Saeko Mizuno, the person they had come to recapture from his grasp. They had taken just over an hour to do so, but they had successfully done it, all that stood between them and, was him. The general quickly considered, like Soyuz did at his options and realized that either way he was a dead man and just like Soyuz, he decided that if he were to die, it would only fitting if he could take someone with him.

That he couldn't take a senshi down – the entire point of his war – was beside the point now, but he could take someone with him. While looking as calm as usually was, he pulled was a potion grenade attached to his belt.

"Fire at the tower!" he barked at his auto-troops while he turned to throw his grenade.

The senshi weren't quite sure what the general was doing before it was too late. They had seen him he pull a potion grenade off to his belt and predictable braced for it being thrown their way, but it wasn't until he barked his order to the auto-troops they hadn't destroyed that their concern suddenly shifted when they realized what the general doing. Even if they noticed it before however, none of them were able to react in time to prevent the act being done.

The grenade hit square in the corner of the radio tower and began the detonation process. It engulfed area – which included the general – while a second later, his remaining auto-troops fired their last rounds each as they, at the same time, were being dispatched with incantations from Mars and Venus. The plasma shots added more damage the place to the grenade had hit and helped accelerate the buckling process. When the metal gave way, it helped compromise the structural integrity of the corner, which like a tree being cut down, was all that was need to create enough of an imbalance to topple the tower over onto its side.

The senshi at once reacted, thought for the first time this evening didn't know what to do, just that the tower was falling to the side and Saeko Mizuno was attached to it about half way up. Things only became worse when she suddenly became detached. While it had held her back for all of the evening so far, the crumbling structure had broken the ropes with ease and with an additional lurching jolt caused by the tower's contact with the roof, Saeko was catapulted free. Instead of following with tower's tremendous fall to the roof of the shopping center, instead, Saeko was now falling away at an angle – because of the way she had been detached - towards a still unspecified point at the roof below.

It was something that both made things simpler, but vastly hard to do at the same time, though without flinching for a second, Neptune and Mercury started running towards the falling person they had come to save. All of them rushed of course, but based on the way she had come free of the tower, it was only Neptune and Mercury who where close enough to where she would land. But when she finally discovered that was the central glass dome – yet untouched by tonight's events – was where her mother would fall, Mercury, alone, winced one final time before taking her final leap into the air.

* * *

_Author's commentary: One really daunting aspect of planning this battle was by the time i came to writing it, so many factors had changed in the story that I ended up having to throw out the established concept. On the one hand it does make for a very interesting battle, but on the other, it was really the realization that there was just way too much to cover in a single chapter. This chapter almost made me consider rewriting 18 and 19 into a three parter instead of two chapters, In the end i stuck to my guns on keeping it a 20 chapter story and I got what i wanted, even if it does feel like a series of scenes pasted together at times._


	21. Chapter 20: The whole story

**Chapter 20: The whole story**

Saeko closed her eyes and just prayed for it to end soon. She had seen it all now, the battle, Mercury's courageous final stand, and then the sudden reversal at the last moment with the arrival of the other senshi, in time to perform the final act in this battle by taking down the enemy in a ballet of panache and gallantry. It had been a spectacular battle, one that raised the bar of her expectations and reversed her – flawed understanding from that night – beliefs about the senshi at the same. It gave Saeko the kind of awe that only a child had the fortunate of appreciating. But that had all come to an end, at the last second the enemy had done something that the senshi couldn't stop and that had been to deny them of accomplishing their only objective this evening, rescue her.

As she sailed in arc towards an unknown part of the roof – which she didn't dare to guess what it would do to her body – Saeko though about a lot things. As she descended, her thoughts mainly flashed through the high points of her life, from her own childhood to the moment she discovered Ami's special identity, all of it representing a series of events that characterized her life until now, as it would soon end in a bloody wreck on a cement roof. But among those thoughts late into her decent, Saeko returned her attention to the regrets in her life, her failed marriage, letting work consume her, but none of these came close to how she had never been able to reconcile with Ami before tonight.

It had taken her to see Ami in action as Mercury to convince her finally of how right her daughter had been that night. Not believing a single word from her that night, it only until seeing her daughter, perform well under adverse conditions in a truly hopeless situation, doing her very best to hold out long enough to wait for the others, to convince Saeko of the truth in what Ami had said. Even though she had come very close to seeing her daughter die, Saeko couldn't have been more impressed at her gallantry at holding out just long enough for her – as Setsuna had mildly put it before – loyal friends to come and save the day.

But what finally sold Saeko though, was seeing Mercury stand up and being helped back into the battle with the aid of Venus. Refusing to let the others take the brunt, even after what she had gone through, Mercury had played a role to the very end, working with another senshi to turn the tide of the battle in its grand finale and secure – a now impossible to achieve – victory. It was just like everything Ami had said before about her role as Mercury and it had been just like the many stories she had heard about the heroic feats the senshi routinely performed, but seeing for the first time gave it a special quality that recounts wouldn't have quite conveyed.

That Saeko now wouldn't ever get to say how wrong she was to doubt Ami, was the most regretful thing of her regrets. While justified in her concern, as any good mother is about their child, it was now quite clear that while it was a risky responsibility being a senshi, Saeko had underestimated the strength in her daughter. Seeing it herself, Ami had more than overcome the adversity that came with being Sailor Mercury, but excelled at it. Even battered and bruised, she had fought on, defying even her enemy's expectations on her survival, all in the now empty hope of rescuing her.

And now? Saeko couldn't imagine what was going on in Ami's mind, but panic at a failed mission and seeing her only family fall to an inevitable…

The feeling of being touched – or being knocked aside to be exact – surprised Saeko and she at once wondered what had happened, snapping her eyes open, she couldn't see a face, but a tattered uniform with the shredded remains of a light blue ribbon on the person's back and an equally ruined short skirt. That wasn't all she could sense however, and in a second her cheeks detected the flurry of hair brushing against her cheek. But before Saeko had even had the chance to determine it was her daughter, the two landed on the roof. It wasn't going to be a soft landing; in fact, it was almost a miracle in itself that either didn't get any more badly beaten up in process of skidding to a halt.

The Mizuno's landed with a thud, which was only made non-fatal by first, the angle in which they landed and second, by Mercury being the one to take the brunt. Motion didn't stop there however and without pause, they continued to crash to a halt through a path that was occupied by pipes, debris and ice – which added an additional ten meters to their skidding stop – that contributed in adding a broken leg to Saeko's list of injuries and crushed ribs to Ami's already long list. Motion however bled off with the ground friction and after tumbling thought twenty five meters of rooftop obstacles and debris.

Stopped in one place, the two were still embraced like they had on their decent and throughout their violent tumble to a stop. Mercury having ended up on top, raised her bloodied, battered and bruised body weakly to one side before collapsing on her back to look at up at the sky. Through the silence of her final move, was followed immediately by an almost explosive sound, as the radio tower finally came crashing onto the roof and echoed out everything else for several minutes. When the noises died down, Saeko finally spoke

"Ami…"

"Yeah?" Mercury replied, not at all worried about responding to her real name to this person now.

"I'm sorry I never understood you until now…" Saeko breathed out her words slowly, ignoring the pain in her leg.

"I'm sorry too…" Mercury said, her breathing feeling heavier now her lungs had to work harder to fill with air "…that I go so angry at you before…"

Saeko heard the heaviness in her voice and turned to face her daughter. She saw Mercury's bloodied face and the clearly damaged body, but judged, accurately that her daughter was still with her. She raised her hand – realizing at once she had sprained her wrist as well – and reached for her daughter's exposed hand. She cupped it in her own and felt the warmth still presiding over her.

"…then lets start over…" Saeko whispered, faintly hearing the sound of footsteps approaching them now "…when this is all over, how about we talk about it…"

Mercury simply sighed a reliving brief before adding "…okay"

From their silent few seconds together before the other senshi arrived, they had rebound what had been lost only days before.

* * *

While Venus and Neptune had gone to find where Mercury and her mother had landed, the others had a more pressing task at hand.

"…Well?" the general coughed in a whispered mutter, his low tone no longer possible under these circumstances.

It had just had to be his luck that he would actually survive the blast. Despite being only meters from the grenade and possible shrapnel that could've torn him apart; he had been merely blown backwards before being engulfed in the fireball, which too failed to kill him. His uniform, designed to protect its wearer from fires, was roasted and thus so was all of the weapons on his body, including his suicide knife – despite which a senshi had without courteously removed from his grasp anyway – negating his ability to escape with a more powerful explosion.

Instead of the fiery death he had hoped for, he was surrounded by girls, girls in senshi uniform with mean looks and passionate anger on their faces, all accept one. When she had come to some sort of agreement on what to do with him, Sailor moon had walked forward, again with her specter in hand like last time and like last time with Pluto in tow, her weapon out to counter any vain attempt the general might try like his fallen colonel had.

"Are you prepared to agree to our terms for your surrender?"

The general – surprised by what he was hearing – considered his options before nodding his submission.

* * *

The next twelve hours went by like a blur, which was exactly what it felt like, when Saeko tried to recall everything that happened the next morning. Having been rescued with substantial injuries, and after some argument on what to do, the senshi had collectively decided on letting the paramedics and hospital system handle her injuries, if anything to allow her missing status – which had been incidentally reported at the same time by the hospital – to be rectified with the appropriate, though obvious explanation. It wasn't the ideal solution though, since it involved the senshi breaking one fairly important rule in their usual procedures in departing a battlefield.

Even if Saeko had tried to deny it, having the senshi bring her to the paramedics that were now flooding the scene was more than enough to spark the attention of everyone, especially the police investigation force in charge of looking at this senshi battle. After being processed on site and being checked into the hospital – to the amazed surprise of the staff – she worked at, and after a very relieved medical staff treated her wounds from the last day, the police had been humble in their questioning of her interaction and brief disappearance. The questions were calmly asked, with the additional presence of Ryosuke, the senior doctor on duty at the moment, to make sure the police treated her with respect.

Saeko had recounted everything she could remember of the last day, careful the whole time to leave out the obvious details about her interaction with the senshi. She recounted everything she could 'apparently' remember but had been deliberately vague on how she had been kidnapped and who had kidnapped her. She had feigned complete forgetfulness when it came to asking why she was kidnapped at all, but the investigators understood on that score and it was never brought up again. Apart from her own disappearance though, Saeko managed to provide details of the warehouse as one place she was taken to and she provided a stellar detailed commentary of the battle just fought. Apart from that she rambled minor details that would be picked over by the investigators for weeks to come.

It had gone long into the night and into Christmas day before they decided they had taken enough of her time and left the rescued doctor to sleep. Ryosuke called the Mizuno residence to inform Ami, first of her mother's kidnapping and then of her rescue by the sailor senshi just hours before. To his surprise the phone was never picked up and after leaving a message on the answering machine, he returned to his rounds, which for the moment included assessing a number of other cases from tonight's battle. It wouldn't get as frantic as before because of the low numbers and fairly light injuries, but it would keep him busy for the whole night.

* * *

The shopping center had once become the focus of attention in the media for the second time in less than a fortnight, though compared to the relatively light damage from the previous attack, this most recent one made the damage from first battle practically insignificant. The food court was a blasted wreck, almost all of the skylights – which was now letting in the first snow to fall – had been shattered, dozens of store fronts were wrecked along with the mall itself and the radio mast which serviced mobile phone coverage and relayed local radio station signals was toppled over onto a rooftop mess that would take weeks to clean up.

In total, it was in even worse a mess than the Minato district police station and already rumors about the shopping center attaining bad luck somehow was being circulated by the public. By the end of the week, the center's management would be afraid for the future of their property – with the planned office tower only about months away from groundbreaking – but their greatest concern was over the damage done to the shopping center and how long it would be before the center could resume trading. It was only until the fire department had entered the building and certified it safe for people to enter, that the police could even begin their investigation.

With the dismal discovery that no footage had been recorded, detectives were forced to reconstruct events based on testimonies and observations about the damage. While the roof was beyond the pale for any investigator to properly understand, the inside of the building was just barely explainable though none of them would fully reconstruct what had taken place. While most of the evidence had burned away as the auto-troops were designed to, a few things remained. Among those things, detectives were quick to discover a pair of bodies that lay on the floor in a crumpled heap.

Mercifully, the crushing forces had spared their heads, which at least left the detectives with a face that helped identify them as human beings, though it wouldn't help explain what the rest of their bodies looked like after how disordered they had become. No biopsy would ever work out what killed them exactly, though a careful observation from junior investigator had noted that despite rigor mortis not having set in yet, both bodies were gripping a piece of wood with an inch of steel on the end. A more senior detective, upon seeing it himself, noted the dowel piece of wood as being apart of a sword once he noticed the blue and a red slash merely draped around the wrist.

* * *

Nobody knew who they were and after their bodies had been photographed enough times, were put into two body bags destined for the closest morgue. In another week, after an exhaustive search for their identities, their remains were cremated.

"You must've had an exciting last day and a half" Hiroyoshi commented as he took the liberty to check on Saeko's chart "I haven't seen this many bruises on anyone since my days at Kobe University"

Saeko had a light chuckle at the reference to Hiroyoshi's younger days. She noted that he could've just as easily referred to the more recent attack at the police station – where those bruises had been serious wounds – but Hiroyoshi was one those doctors with a good bedside manner and didn't like to remind patents of less fortunate cases.

"It was pretty rough…I have to admit…but I got rescued right?"

"By the sailor senshi no less…that must've been one hell of a Christmas present" Hiroyoshi replied in a chuckled as he finished reading the chart "…next time, how about just asking for a nice watch?"

The two laughed lightly at the joke. When Saeko settled down, Hiroyoshi smiled as he put away the chart before sitting down in the chair set up next to the bed.

"So what's the prognosis?" Saeko asked, both for conversation and to see how she really was.

"You're fine…I can even get you discharged by lunch…" Hiroyoshi replied before going on "…but the leg will need at least a month or two, but I imagine your due for some time off anyway…at least that's what the head doctor will agree to when he gets back"

"Hiro…" Saeko turned serious

"Doctor's orders" Hiroyoshi hid behind the oldest of medical excuses "Think of it this way, now you can spend some time with your daughter instead of huddling down in your office twenty five hours a day…enjoy the day off"

Saeko felt a pang of guilt just then, and it came from an instant recall of something when he mentioned her own Ami.

"What about your daughters…and your sister…what are they doing right now?"

"They understand…besides with you out of action, who is going to take up the slack?"

"Hiro…" Saeko warned again, this time with a downward tone in her voice.

"Don't worry about it…I'll have someone relieve me at midday and then I'll go with my daughters to the park…it doesn't have to be in the morning does it?"

Saeko sighed relief, though the pang of guilt never went away. It did ask a new question however, but fortunately she would never have to ask the question aloud, since its subject had just arrived.

"Mother" Ami spoke from the door.

Ami averted from the temptation to dash to the bed and instead walked a brisk pace before reaching down to hug her bed-bound mother. Saeko embraced her daughter in warm hug for almost a minute before she released again. Hiroyoshi, not having to be told, made it his queue to leave without another word.

"How are you doing?" Ami asked the most obvious question.

"I'm alright…thought I honestly can't remember how I got here…" Saeko spoke in a soft voice.

Ami went quiet with concern when she heard that. Though for a second she had wondered if it was an act, the inflection just wasn't right for that.

"You don't remember anything?"

"No…" Saeko replied "…just something about the…they thought I was Sailor Mercury…for some reason…and…"

Ami's face went ghostly pale and a chill went down her spine colder than last night had been when she heard that. Just what had happened to her mother overnight, and what could have made her have amnesia about the last eight or so days since she revealed her identity as Mercury? Would she have to do it again? Would the others allow her to do it? Ami's mind blanked out at the thought as she feared for the worst for her mother's health.

"Are you sure you…" Ami blurted out before being cut off by Saeko's giggle.

Saeko at once changed her expression from an unaware battered survivor to what she had been before Ami had entered the door.

"Ami…Ami…haven't your friends ever tried pulling one over you yet?" Saeko giggled "don't worry…I remember who you are...Sailor Mercury"

Ami breathed a sigh of a relief, which only prompted Saeko's giggle to upgrade to a chuckle like before. Ami drooped down onto the bed while her behind found the chair that was placed beside it. Saeko smiled and patted her daughter's head while the two enjoyed the time alone for another minute before…

"I told you it was here…" came a distinct voice in the hallway "…when it comes to floor maps, you can't read Haruka"

"And who drove you here?" the other voice asked sarcastically.

"Michiru?"

From the door, Setsuna, Haruka, Michiru all filed in while Hotaru at once joined Ami – who sat upright upon their arrival – at Saeko's side to offer her own praise at her safe rescue. Part of it was an act, though like all actors, it also had a little bit of truth inside.

"Meioh-san, Tenoh-san, Kaioh-san" Saeko spoke to the three adults of the group "you didn't have to come all this way…"

"Don't sweat about it…we wanted to come" Haruka replied, though personally she really wished they had give her an hour more of shut eye "…besides, we needed to drop Ami-san off so she could see you"

"Ami was staying at your house?" Saeko asked in surprise

"To heal up and to get some sleep" Setsuna explained "…she was pretty badly beaten up from our fight…so we let her stay over…I hope you didn't mind that we…"

"Oh no…please" Saeko replied, afraid of offending her visitor "…I don't mind at all…thank you even…"

"So how are you feeling?" Hotaru asked

Saeko turned to face the girl she learnt only a day ago was a twice born-again of the same person. Until this moment, she had put it into the back of her head, but upon hearing her voice, it for some unearthly reason, it had brought it all back up. How unnerving it was to think in those terms however, Saeko couldn't dare bring herself to look at Hotaru any other way than the cheerful pre-teen that she was in her eyes. Saeko would have a chance to ask about it in the days to come of course, but never would Saeko ever deny Hotaru the same respect she gave her daughter or the others in the Sailor Senshi.

"I'm doing very well…I take it I have you to thank for healing my Ami again?"

"Yes…It was tough but I…" Hotaru stopped when Saeko patted her on the head.

"Thank you…for everything"

Hotaru felt the warmest smile since she was in her father's arms.

"So I guess that means you can head out" Haruka asked

"Head out?"

"You know, discharged…break bail….get the out of dodge…" Haruka offered some alterative phases.

"I get it…" Saeko waved Haruka to stop "…let me talk to someone"

* * *

"Have this copied and filed when you have the chance" Hiroyoshi spoke as he handed the medical charts over to the duty nurse

"Yes doctor…" the nurse replied cheerfully upon seeing the name on the card. Her boss was leaving after her short half day visit.

Hiroyoshi waved off to the desk and walked back to his own office where he usually sat vigil during his half-hourly walk around the floor. He closed the door and inside a minute was alone with his thoughts again. Having done the favor for Saeko, he had nothing else to do today but stare idly at clock until midday, when he too could leave work – to have Hatori or someone else come in – and play with his daughters finally. But despite losing the one thing to distract him at his job, he was actually quite happy to help Saeko keep a promise from two weeks ago that she had tried to make to Ami.

Her early departure however ruined one surprise that had already been altered from the original plans to cheer Saeko up on Christmas day. Having until a few hours ago assumed she would be on duty, he had placed a present in her office, a gift that would have made the day go a lot faster. But upon learning she was admitted to the hospital as a patient, he had quietly removed the present from her office to instead give it to her Saeko on the way out of the hospital when he left at the same time. But the visitors had grounded that plan into the dirt, leaving him with the present in his desk.

He pulled open the draw to look at it again and lifted it out of the simple shopping bag It was a brand new 'Sailor Stars' Sailor Mercury action figurine, the senshi that Saeko had so often mentioned was her favorite. It wasn't covered up in gift wrap, but did have a simple red ribbon box-tied to it with a fancy bow and the tag 'Mizuno' attached. He had bought Mars and Venus for his daughters, but he had saved this one for his work colleague.

"I guess I can't beat the real thing" Hiroyoshi admitted as he admired the figurine through the plastic box.

Having gazed at it enough, he put it away, sure that he could always give it to Saeko another day.

* * *

The departure from the hospital had been a complicated exercise at first, but Saeko's rank and station in this particular facility – In addition to the word about what she had just been though – gave her the ability to obtain a pair of crutches and a wheelchair on her way out. It was far easier to replace than a medic bag and considering the day, nobody really minded that much anyway. Apart from the task of obtaining those two items, the outer senshi had come prepared for this move. Michiru had brought he own car in addition to Haruka taking her own, giving the party of six the right logistical arrangements for their travel to the Mizuno residence.

It was a quick drive to the Mizuno residence - compared to the longer journey Saeko had taken two nights ago – and the two vehicles soon found themselves at their destination, parking near the garage entrance to the apartment complex. Saeko was aided into her chair by Haruka and Setsuna, before being wheeled around to the wheel-chair accessible ground floor lobby by Ami, for the elevator was accessible. While not expressing it verbally or otherwise, Saeko felt safe this time in knowing that with the protection of at least five sailor senshi, she would make it home this time, without anyone kidnapping her again.

Two elevator rides were needed to bring all six of them to the right floor – the wheelchair had taken up a lot of space in the already small elevator car – before the group could continue on the final stretch for the Mizuno's condo residence, where a surprise had been waiting for them behind the door. After having knocked on the door, which confused Saeko for a second, it had opened to reveal the other four senshi and two cats were waiting inside for them, armed with party poppers. Their surprise was well recieved, thought Saeko felt even more guilt upon learning about the arrangements that they had gotten themselves out of.

"Are you sure it's okay?" Saeko had asked again on their drive to her home "I mean don't all of you have families to…"

"Hardly…" Haruka commented, with a tone that Saeko didn't mistake for sarcasm.

"We…that is to say the four of us are our own family" Setsuna explained "…and all of us don't mind at all"

"…and I talked it over with my mother…she doesn't mind it a bit, for as long as I'm home for dinner" Usagi laughed

"Grandfather is over at another temple today anyway to visit an old friend, so it's no problem for me" Rei added.

"My family understands as well…" Minako replied last "besides…their idea of Christmas is about presents at six in the morning…as long as I'm home for dinner, they don't mind a bit"

Saeko took that at the value it presented itself and learned a new thing about her new…friends? They were really friends to Ami course, but where they now friends with her as well? Certainly they must have, given that didn't need to help Saeko get home or spend time with her and Ami, but it was a new thought to consider as she wheeled herself into the living room. Apart from the understandable changes to the layout in her furniture today to accommodate both the chair she was in and the additional visitors, the coffee table was covered in all manner of food, including a pair of Christmas cakes from the workplace that Minako and Makoto had been at the previous night.

It had taken the combined efforts of the other four inner senshi from nine in the morning to now to cook enough food for the ten of them and their effort was rewarded by the outer senshi, Ami and Saeko on a job well done. With a few further deliberations and a few words spoken, the group sat down around the table to their lunch, prayed their thanks for the meal for which they were about to share and started to eat. The arrangement wasn't perfect, the Mizuno's didn't have a dining table in their condo and there were nowhere near enough seats for everyone, but everyone made do.

Usagi, Michiru Ami and Makoto had all crammed onto the couch, Minako and Rei managed to share the sofa chair by one of them sitting on the wide cushioned arm rests, Setsuna managed to get the chair from Ami's room and Artemis, Luna, Haruka and Hotaru, having nothing to sit on, took the floor, but only after stealing several cushions from the sofa. In all, it was a comical arrangement, but for its simplicity, was none the less met with no complaints, but plenty of jokes. Food was passed out, drinks were handled and the impromptu party of ten started with their lunch. Discussion broke out after the first few minutes and among at first things brought up was the inevitable talk the battle last night.

For the first time since the battle, all the senshi started discuss what had happened with respect to their experiences and the highlights of the evening. For Ami, it filled in the gaps on her own questions about what happened while she faced off the general alone. For Saeko however, their respective stories added flavor to the side of the battle she had witnessed herself. Though humble in their explanations, from what Saeko learned, they were quite adapt at coming up with creative ways of defeating their enemy last night, with Makoto' retelling of Minako's toy store stand off being the particular highlight of this discussion.

As it unavoidable as the discussion about the battle was, so was the discussion about the general and what Sailor moon and the others had done to him while Mercury, Venus and Neptune and Saeko were elsewhere. Usagi, being the original arbitrator of the surrender terms, started to explain the basic agreement that she and the general had come to. In exchange for revealing all the details he had gotten out of Saeko and location of his – now abandoned – base, he would serve time frozen in carbon crystal and kept in the space-time tunnel, to be reanimated sometime in the future.

"…for now, that's the only thing we can do…when the time comes, we will deal with him properly" Setsuna added, actually repeating words Usagi had said to her the night before.

"We should have wasted him…" Haruka spoke bluntly "after what he did? Why give him a second chance?"

"But if we did that… wouldn't that have justified everything he has ever thought about us?" Minako argued "I agree with Usagi…even for all of things he did…its better this way"

The group paused at that, with the scraping of folks on plates and the hum of the reverse cycle air conditioner warming up the room making the only noise. It was a heavy thought to consider that wouldn't soon go away, but it was Usagi who felt she needed to say one more thing on the subject.

"In meantime though…" Usagi spoke "…I left him to think about what good will fighting over the past do for the future"

"…which might have been the most intelligent thing I've ever heard you say" Rei commented slyly.

"What?" Usagi turned to the culprit of that remark "I say plenty of smart things!"

"Then what about the time when…" Rei started to recount a story from early in their careers as senshi. It was a fun story everyone remembered and Saeko soon found it amusing herself by the time of the climax. Despite the embarrassment caused, the tense strain from the subject from only a few minutes before – that threatened to be lethal to the atmosphere of the party – disappeared after that and was never directly touched upon again.

"In a few days, we'll travel up to that hotel and make sure everything is destroyed or not in unsafe hands" Setsuna announced

"Assuming he was telling the truth" Rei pointed out

"We'll take caution…" Haruka noted "besides…from what he told us…the good news is he didn't really know all of our names"

"What?" Ami said "When I talked to him…he seemed to imply hew knew all our identities"

"Well…According to him once we had him on the ground, he claimed to only know the names of four of us…" Setsuna replied "You, Minako, Haruka and Hotaru"

"…and that would be my fault"

All turned to Saeko, who had grimaced at the subject being brought up. Among other subjects, she had managed to avoid it until now, but there was really nothing Saeko could say to excuse herself. With that self admission made vocal, Saeko started explaining the details slowly she could remember about her interrogation and described the device that Colonel Soyuz had used on her. While she got looks from everyone, at the end, it wasn't looks for resentment or even disappointment, rather awe in Saeko's resistance to give information. Having learnt that she had been tortured for the information and given how new Saeko was to things of this nature, nobody at the table dared to objective to her bravery.

When Saeko finished her illation of what had happened, the room became silent again for the second time. It wasn't the kind of thing one wanted to listen to in an otherwise cheerful occasion, though all of them finally understood just how dedicated Saeko had been to keeping their secret. Ami tensed at hearing the details and winced when her mother talked about the Orb device in detail. The enemy had gone to fairly extreme lengths to get the information they were after and her mother had paid for the burden. It would be a long time before Ami could ever forgive herself for what had happened, but just like the other senshi had come to conclude, Saeko had a level of integrity that any of the of them could admire.

"…I don't know what might have happened If I wasn't rescued last night…he might have gotten all of the names" Saeko replied after a few minutes of silence passed "Even so…I…"

"You have nothing to apologize for"

Saeko stopped grieving at her mistake when Setsuna continued to speak.

"If it were any of us, we probably would've done the same thing eventually…Doctor Mizuno, I think I speak for everyone when I say that we'll never judge you for this…" Setsuna replied kindly "…and on that note, I think I speak for everyone when I Say that we will never have worry about our secret with you"

Eight heads all nodded in agreement with Setsuna's position, confirming for Saeko the official understanding and forgiveness from people whom, she felt only seconds before, would become disillusioned with trusting her with their secret. Sudden fears however are usually misplaced and after the official forgiveness, Setsuna was about to say something to make the day the more meaningful. The eldest senshi turned to the two other leaders of the senshi.

"Minako? Usagi?"

Both knew what Setsuna had been referring to by just to look in her eyes. Ceremonial as it was, Setsuna still wished to have their collective blessing to be sure.

"No objections" Minako, the leader of the inner senshi, replied

"No complaints from me" Usagi, the future queen, answered, confirming for Setsuna what she wanted to say.

"Then I can say it…Doctor Mizuno, Welcome to our family"

Saeko was speechless, honored and felt the warm feeling of admiration tingle through her heart at hearing that. It was a fairly strange family to be inducted to of course, all female, with two talking cats and all of them were younger than Saeko by a generation. But however weird their personality traits were – let alone their secret ones – she, like anybody here, would not have it any other way.

"Thank you…so much"

Minako announced a toast for the newly declared member of the senshi family, and while Saeko would never wear the uniform, or ever have powers like all of them, they would still fondly consider her one of their own. The toast made, the discussions about the battle soon subsided and talk on other subjects followed. Apart from the customary argument between Usagi and Rei on some minor detail, the otherwise pleasant lunch rest was uneventful.

* * *

By two in the afternoon, Minako and Usagi left for their respective families at home to spend the rest of the holiday with them. This left Rei and Makoto to continue telling funny stories about Ami's secret past – all to the embarrassingly displeasure of their friend – while they looked over the pictures that Saeko had discovered the other day and Ami had realized her mother had found. But by dinner, they too had left, along with the outer senshi who had plans to go ice skating like they had planned. This left Ami and Saeko alone with themselves for the first time since the hospital this morning, or since the morning after Saeko had learnt of her daughter's identity depending on perspective.

After cleaning up the mess – which there was remarkably little of – Saeko returned to her original promise the night before to talk about Ami's secret identity in more detail. Saeko had been especially diligent in suppressing her curiosity until now and while she could have easily asked any of the senshi the same questions; it was Ami's answer that she wanted to hear. There would be some questions Saeko would peruse in the future with Setsuna, like Hotaru and the moon kingdom, but for now, Saeko just wanted to get to know her daughter better.

Their discussion went late into the evening and exhausted both Mizuno as they sat on the couch and examined more photos in Ami's extensive achieve of her once-secret past. Eventually however sleep became a necessity for both and retirement to their beds was mutually decided upon.

"I still have so many things I wanted to ask…" Saeko spoke as she was helped by Ami into her bedroom

"They can wait for tomorrow though right?" Ami said with an understanding tone

"Yes, I guess they can" she chuckled before being helped onto the bed "Though…there is one thing to ask you…"

* * *

It had taken an extra day to find the hideout due to a minor error in the general's own disclosure to the senshi, but three days after the battle, his base in the mountains was located. True to his word, the quartet of senshi tasked to its destruction found no traps, no hidden robots, nothing at all the excepted sundries of the men and women Kovomeyer lead until their demise as a team. This didn't stop the senshi from being cautious of course, but fear eventually became boring and the fours hours of trap-free exploration of the site made all of them relax as they continued to locate all manner of items, with the top priority being to find the orb.

Other things were discovered, spare auto-troop parts, various tools used by all of the colonels, the computer and stack of VHS tapes from the police station, the roster form that had made the kidnapping of only last week even possible and all manner of items from their two week campaign against the senshi. The only thing that couldn't be found however was the Orb, and despite comprehensive searches of the building, nobody had managed to locate it. Even with Saeko's description, the senshi were lost in trying to find the one item that they needed to destroy the most.

But Sailor Pluto was fairly certain that it was here – though the general never mentioned it – and was determined like the others to locate it before they left this place. Five hours passed however before Saturn, having really been curious about a certain room, found the orb wrapped in a blanket, hidden in what had been the general's quarters.

"Is this it?" Uranus asked in surprise at the orb Saturn was holding.

"Seems to be" Pluto replied after she took it from Saturn's hands.

Pluto caressed the silver ball, looking for a way to activate the supposed device. After a few tries, Pluto found the hidden on switch and a holographic screen popped up with almost random things stored in its memory.

"Well?" Neptune asked from the door.

"This is it" Pluto repeated and confirmed Uranus's words.

Without having to be told, the quartet of senshi proceeded outside to dispose of this piece of hardware properly like they had for everything else they found so far. One destructive blast later from Pluto's staff, the orb was no more. All the trouble of the last two weeks became a thing of history now and with the significant addition to the senshi circle, everything could now return to as before.

"Well, that was fairly easy" Uranus spoke as she inspected the creator they had just made in the courtyard.

"…and that closes the book on this whole affair" Neptune added "Pluto?"

"I think so…and if there is stuff we haven't found, then more than likely won't be found by anyone else"

"That's a fairly bold gamble considering the computer we just found" Uranus quipped

"I think it's an acceptable gamble" Pluto reminded her friend.

"Then I guess that means our job is done here" Saturn noted with some amusement, looking forward to what would soon follow.

The senshi didn't need to ask about what Saturn was really talking about and all of them shared agreement, it was time to take their delayed vacation. Stopping by the mountain base had merely been a stop along their way on their ski slopes. They were only another half a day's drive from here and all of them looked forward to taking time off after the tension of last two weeks. Without any further debate, the quartet of senshi left the mountain base and with it, the whole episode was over.

* * *

Three days was about the time Saeko needed to adjust to her new circumstances. It had been a very long time since she had been bandaged up for anything, let alone for a broken limb, which was guaranteed to create additional constraints on what she could do. The hospital had no choice but to agree and granted her two months of leave on that basis alone, giving Saeko a well deserved vacation, and time to spend her – existing and new – family. The first few days however, were spent with Ami, first working out a routine based around her disability and second to talk more about the subject that had played a role in breaking her leg in the first place.

One part of the routine quickly established was a daily visit to a nearby park or the nearest food store. Cabin fever and boredom was a fairly enviable part of her current circumstances and so was the strain to keep to a routine to keep the mind active, despite the badly needed rest Saeko needed from that. The only apparent downside in this was Saeko's dependence on Ami to help her out. While she was starting to get use to the crutches around her home, for longer distances – a term which seemed to encompass anything beyond the front door – Saeko needed the wheelchair and Ami to accompany her.

This wasn't as much a downside as Saeko thought however, though she was starting to feel slightly guilty for taking Ami away from her daily routine of study, friends and other activities. Because of this and other reasons, Saeko had restrained herself from annoying her daughter with too many questions about her subject of interest, save for the one favor that Ami had, with partial reluctance and partial interest, agreed to the day before.

Otherwise, except for the call from the work, Saeko had spent the last few days unwinding her stressful work life and enjoying the break, even if was at the cost of her leg.

Ami didn't actually mind helping her mother, though she also felt guilty at wondering what her mother would do when school resumed next week. For the time being however, she helped out as much as Ami was able to, which for moment meant a lot of things. Among the most memorable however was the favor that her mother had asked for on Christmas, to be done the next day when she had the time. Ami had her reservations, but couldn't deny that in the greater scheme of things, it was something she wanted to do as well.

"So how long will they before they come back?" Saeko asked

"Another week" Ami replied "at least for as long as they had originally planned"

"…and the other thing?" she spoke, as Saeko now referred to anything senshi related.

"Handled"

Ami and Saeko travelled down a path along the frozen lake bed and took the occasional glance at the people who were taking the risk of skating atop it.

"So what do you want for dinner?" Saeko asked, turning to a more familiar topic

"Pasta…something warm for dinner…"Ami answered "that's if we had the stuff for it at home…we'll have to make a trip to the store for that"

"Then lets go" Sako commanded while chucking.

Ami smiled and completed at once, turning the wheelchair around to exit the park. On their way towards the gate, Saeko reached for her wallet in her handbag to count cash she would need to buy both dinner, and caught a glimpse of the new photo she had for the window section in her wallet.

Her request to Ami had been to take the chance to update the photograph she kept in her wallet from the one already dated by several years, and to do this time both as her daughter and as the Sailor senshi that she had so admired. It had been something Ami had been worried about at first, but upon her own careful consideration, was something she herself wanted to do. Arranging the photo was easily done and with the selection of Ami's usual place for developing the film, it had been a fairly simple and as always, kept a secret. Saeko was more than pleased with the outcome and now had both pictures in her wallet.

"So about what Rei was talking about that time at the beach…"

Ami chuckled when she recognized what her mother was talking about "She didn't tell it right…let me tell you the whole story this time" 


	22. Afterword and Project timeline

**Afterword**

In the closing hours of 2010, seeing this story come to the end of its long road to completion makes it worth all the effort I have put into it over the past year. While it took only 10 days to cycle all the chapters through a processing and uploading phase, it took far longer than the time that takes place in my story to have planned, drafted and finally write this story.

As some readers might have guessed, all these chapters were written well in advance of the first upload date, which explains my rapid update time. This was wholly intentional due to a policy I implemented some time ago. Having failed three times in writing a story of equal size to its completion, when I originally approached this idea in November 2009, I was very cautious in jumping in without planning ahead, fearing a repeat. Instead, I took Project 142 (the title of the project itself) on a new path of extensive planning before writing.

Planning took place in December 2009; where I researched my original question "what if Ami's mother found out about Ami's identity?" and expanded the idea into a much larger story. That planning in hindsight was far more vital than I had expected, having helped me avoid similar a fate of stories I have read that were great in idea, but lacking in story or completion. After writing a draft of 10 pages outlining the events I wanted and how I wanted it, in February 2010, I started to work on this story, wholly with an intention of writing a light 12 Chapter, 100,000 word story which I only hoped would take 8 weeks.

I was optimistic however and throughout 2010, a combination of life events and concern over the quality of the story I was writing transformed it into a 20 chapter, almost 200,000 word story. As Author, I can say with frank honesty I am pleased with this work and it had given me new thoughts about where I should go with fan fiction in the future. Having completed this first one, as well as completing one of this size and complexity, has renewed my interest in working towards projects of this kind.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this story.

_Nighthawk_Imac_

**Project Timeline**

Project 142/S11 Commenced: 16/11/2009

Summary Draft Completed: 05/12/2009

Chapter 01: Started 08/02/2010, Finished 09/02/2010, Uploaded 21/12/2010  
Chapter 02: Started 10/02/2010, Finished 11/02/2010, Uploaded 21/12/2010  
Chapter 03: Started 11/02/2010, Finished 14/02/2010, Uploaded 22/12/2010  
Chapter 04: Started 15/02/2010, Finished 17/02/2010, Uploaded 22/12/2010  
Chapter 05: Started 17/02/2010, Finished 20/02/2010, Uploaded 23/12/2010  
Chapter 06: Started 21/02/2010, Finished 24/02/2010, Uploaded 23/12/2010  
Chapter 07: Started 24/02/2010, Finished 26/02/2010, Uploaded 24/12/2010  
Chapter 08: Started 26/02/2010, Finished 03/03/2010, Uploaded 26/12/2010  
Chapter 09: Started 09/03/2010, Finished 20/03/2010, Uploaded 26/12/2010  
Chapter 10: Started 20/03/2010, Finished 24/03/2010, Uploaded 26/12/2010  
Chapter 11: Started 24/03/2010, Finished 26/03/2010, Uploaded 26/12/2010  
Chapter 12: Started 26/03/2010, Finished 23/04/2010, Uploaded 27/12/2010  
Chapter 13: Started 23/04/2010, Finished 26/04/2010, Uploaded 28/12/2010  
Chapter 14: Started 02/08/2010, Finished 07/10/2010, Uploaded 28/12/2010  
Chapter 15: Started 05/10/2010, Finished 10/10/2010, Uploaded 29/12/2010  
Chapter 16: Started 27/10/2010, Finished 30/10/2010, Uploaded 29/12/2010  
Chapter 17: Started 30/10/2010, Finished 02/11/2010, Uploaded 30/12/2010  
Chapter 18: Started 02/11/2010, Finished 02/12/2010, Uploaded 30/12/2010  
Chapter 19: Started 03/12/2010, Finished 08/12/2010, Uploaded 31/12/2010  
Chapter 20: Started 08/12/2010, Finished 10/12/2010, Uploaded 31/12/2010

Chapter Certification and Upload process Started: 20/12/2010

Chapter Certification and Upload process Finished: 31/12/2010

Project 142/S11 Concluded: 31/12/2010


End file.
